roughly one person in forty in the Dominion pays 

 income tax. Taking into account the greater 

 number of children and dependant women in 

 this estimation, the disclosure is not altogether 

 disappointing. Income tax in Canada is paid 

 on excess of $1,000 if unmarried, or a widow or 

 widower without dependants, and on excess of 

 $2,000 if married, or unmarried with dependants, 

 with an extra $200 exemption for each dependant 

 child under the age of eighteen. 



In the year 1920-21 a total of $46,381,806 was 

 collected in income tax by the Federal authorities 

 from 194,257 persons. Farmers numbering 16,- 

 652 paid $611,735; professionals -numbering 19,- 

 366 paid $2,642,385; 111,621 employees working 

 for salaries and wages paid $11,301,805; 24,483 

 merchants were assessed and paid among them 

 $7,689,521; manufacturers numbered 3,277 with 

 a contribution of $8,217,730; and the rest of the 

 taxpayers throughout the Dominion numbering 

 18,858 paid $11,823,563. 



.Farmers Paid Least 



On the face of these returns the amount of 

 tax paid by farmers is disappointing in view of 

 the importance of agriculture as the Dominion's 

 first industry and gives an altogether false view 

 of the situation of the agrarians of Canada. All 

 authorities are agreed that the tax is practically 

 inoperative as far as the farmers are concerned, 

 due to the difficulties of collection, difficulties 

 which arise from lack of accounting in agricul- 

 tural operations, a lack of system which enables 

 the agrarian to avoid the tax and thus render the 

 balance between the rural and urban returns in- 

 equitable. Should the farmers' returns be based 

 on the same accurate system of accounting as 

 those of the professional and business man, there 

 is no doubt but that this class would pay over- 

 whelmingly the greater portion of the Domi- 

 nion's income tax. 



Divided by provinces 72,560 persons in On- 

 tario paid $18,434,252 in income tax; 31,091 in 

 Quebec paid $14,115,644; 28,106 in Manitoba 

 paid $3,474,584; 18,322 in British Columbia 

 paid $2,094,198; 15,555 in'Alberta paid $1,359,- 

 643; 16,913 in Saskatchewan paid $1,098,240; 

 7,583 in Nova Scotia paid $1,060,591; 3,321 in 

 New Brunswick paid $602,935 ; and 339 in Prince 

 Edward Island paid $25,611. It is significant 

 of the high value of farming in the rich territory 

 of Western Canada that even in the unsatisfac- 

 tory state of income tax returns from the agri- 

 cultural sections that of those farmers paying 

 income tax the overwhelming majority were 

 located in the four Western provinces. 



Giving Farm Children City Education 



By F. J. Cowdery, Calgary, Alberta 



To give every child on every farm in the province a 

 practical education equal to that of the city boy or girl, is 

 the ambitious program of the Alberta Department of Edu- 

 cation. Especially in a country so vast where settlement 



in the outlying parts is still very scattered, this is a real 

 man-sized ambition. But Western Canada is a man-sized 

 country, and every problem that has to be faced would 

 appear overwhelming to one not acquainted with the won- 

 derful development of the Canadian West. This parti- 

 cular problem, however, is already well on its way towards 

 solution, and there are very few districts where the young 

 Canadian is more than three miles from a school-house. 



When the prairie country was first surveyed and formed 

 into provinces, some far-seeing statesman laid the foun- 

 dation stone of rural educational development by setting 

 aside two sections in every township or one-eighteenth of 

 the whole country as school lands. As required, these 

 lands are sold at auction and the interest on the money thus 

 secured is used in building and maintaining country schools. 

 Wherever there is a settlement with four resident ratepay- 

 ers within a 2 J^ mile radius, and eight children between the 

 ages of five and sixteen, a school may be established and a 

 school district formed. Every land owner in the school 

 district then has to help to maintain the school, but he 

 himself, in the greater number of cases, decides what levy 

 shall be made, through his local municipal government. 

 This year, upwards of $15,000,000 is being spent by the 

 Alberta government on education alone. 



A Tremendous Increase 



Fifteen years ago there were just over six hundred 

 schools to be found; today, Alberta boasts of three thousand 

 one hundred and fifty-four, containing four thousand, three 

 hundred and twenty-seven class rooms. The number of 

 pupils has kept pace with the schools until last year there 

 were 135,000 on the rolls as against a total enrolment of 

 twenty-four thousand in 1905. This means that one in 

 every 4.63 of the population of the province was attending 

 school. 



Although much of the territory covered by the edu- 

 cational system has only recently been thrown open for 

 settlement, schools have already penetrated to the most 

 remote corners of the province. The most southerly- 

 school is at Coutts, on the International boundary, some 

 four hundred miles south of Edmonton, the provincial 

 capital, while a school house is to be found five hundred 

 miles north of the same city at Lawrence Point on the Peace 

 River. 



The greater number of these schools are of one or two 

 rooms, but are ample for the needs of the district they 

 serve, insofar as an elementary education is concerned. 

 Whenever the attendance warrants it, however, the school 

 house is enlarged, more class rooms added and a higher 

 education given to the more advanced pupils. The con- 

 solidation of a number of small rural schools into a large 

 central school is now under way in the more closely settled 

 districts. The consequent greater attendance allows the 

 formation of more grades, and in these consolidated schools 

 a standard of education is possible very little different from 

 the city public school. Vans and motors taking the pupils 

 to and from school offset the longer journey for the children. 

 There are now more than fifty consolidated schools in the 

 province. 



Free Education 



Apart from such elementary education, it was felt that 

 some effort should be made to remove the handicap under 

 which rural districts were suffering with regard to high 

 school, or secondary education. The result has been that 

 non-resident children are accepted in any High school in 

 the province without fees, and a special grant is made to 

 High schools for this purpose. Rural schools are also 

 being encouraged to offer high school work, and an extra 

 grant of from $100 to $700 is made by the Government 

 where this is carried out. Similar encouragement is being 

 given to secondary work in consolidated schools, while a 

 new policy has just been laid down to make possible a 

 consolidation of several districts for high school purposes 

 only. 



All these policies will, in time, bring an elementary and 

 high school education within the reach of every child wish- 

 ing to take advantage of the opportunity. 



213 



