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105
mending the adoption of any action in the matter at that
time, but submitted the following observations to the
Vestry:—
In the pamphlet published in the year 1888 by the Vestry on the
subject of School Board administration, a comparative statement
was given of the cost for school maintenance in London Board
Schools and elsewhere, from which it appeared that while the
net cost in London Board Schools under this head was estimated
for that year at £1 17s. 3d. per scholar (it actually amounted to
1d. more), in London Voluntary Schools it was only 12s. 10d.,
and in Board Schools throughout Englard and Wales, excluding
London, the average was only 12s. 4¼d., or less than one-third of
the cost in London Board Schools. School maintenance does
not inolude the purchase of land, erection of schools, repayment
of loans, interest, or establishment charges. The extra cost
of land and bailding in the Metropolis, and the heavy expenses
incurred for administration in London, therefore do not affect the
question.
The Board elected in 1885, as appears from their completed accounts,
was the only Beard that kept the cost of school maintenance at
anything approaching a fixed sum. The cost for their three
years of office was respectively 37s. 1d., 37s. 1d., and 37s. 4d.
per scholar ; the cost for the first completed year of the Board
elected in 1888 was 41s. 9d., while for the current year it is
estimated at 45s. l½d. per scholar, an increase of 7s. 9½d. per
scholar in two years. The average attendance of scholars has
increased in the meantime by a trifle less than 7,000, or less than
the normal increase in the population, notwithstanding there are
many vacant places in the Board Schools. It may be assumed
therefore that the Board have overtaken the deficiency of school
accommodation which existed in 1870, and that the future amount
of the School Board rate will depend mainly upon the care
exercised by the Board in administrative details. An increase of
7s. 9½d. per scholar represents a total of £136,077 18s. 11d. upon
the average attendance (349,291), and is equivalent to a rate of
more than 1d. in the £.