156 Rural Education in our Village Schools. 



farms may lead to an increase in the numbers of unemployed 

 in the towns. 



The farmer, however, has a very special interest in the 

 matter, for his living is to a very great extent dependent tipon 

 an adequate supply of capable hands being available. The 

 sviccessful running of any holding, large enough to be called a 

 farm, must always depend upon a partnership between 

 a capable employer and skilful employees. This is obvious in 

 the case of large farms, but it is not less true in the case of 

 small holdings such as exist at the present moment or such as 

 may, in much increased numbers, result in the near future from 

 the action of the legislature. In this case the partnership will 

 be in many cases between a father and his sons fresh from the 

 village school. Not only, therefore, will the father most earn- 

 estly hope that the effect of education may be to train up a 

 succession of useful youngsters, but he may reasonably, as he 

 is the paymaster, insist on his requirements being met. 



In this respect it is pertinent to examine what is the extent 

 of the farmer's financial burden. Taking '' Rural Education " 

 as that education which is carried on by the County Councils 

 and not by Borough Councils, we find that the total amount 

 spent on it in England and Wales in 1908-9 was 7,734,OOOZ. 

 This total was made up of 4,534,()00Z. received as Parliamentarv 

 Grants, and of 3,200,000?. from Local Funds. 



In the case of Impei^ial payments the farmer takes his share 

 as a member of the general public, but in the matter of local 

 expenditure he, through the rates, carries a special burden of 

 his own. In a paper read before the Farmers' Club last May, 

 Mr. Trustram Eve' estimates — and no one with any claim to be 

 considered in such a case will doubt the value of an estimate 

 made by such an authority on this particular subject — that the 

 rates on farm-houses, homesteads, and agricultural land amount 

 to a total of 3,16o,331?. One may roughly estimate at 25 the 

 percentage of this sum due to the cost of education. There are, 

 however, farmers who maintain that the whole of the relief 

 from rates granted vmder the Acts of 1896, which we see from 

 figures given in the paper by Mr. Eve already quoted amounts 

 to 2,355,331/., is in reality counterbalanced by the Education 

 Rate imposed since 1902. Though this must often be an 

 exaggeration, it is not to be denied that the farmer has a heavy 

 financial burden to bear for rural education. 



To test how far the present system meets with the approval 

 of those who carry this financial burden seemed to be pertinent 

 at the present moment, so a letter containing a set of questions 

 was sent to one or two agriculturists in almost every county of 



' " Agricultural Land and Local Taxation," by H. Trustram Eve. Journal 

 of the Farmers' Club, May, 1911. 



