LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND TAXATION 



131 



of that town are in line with those for towns of similar characteristics. 

 It is not enough that the total expenditures of a town are average or 

 below average. Town officials might well examine the individual 

 items which make up the total expenditures of the town. Further- 

 more, there is no evidence here that the average total expenditures 

 of the 89 rural towns represent efficiency, or that the expenditures 

 are too high or too low. More economical local government does not 

 come from being as efficient as the average, but rather from doing 

 better than the average. However, this is not to say that the total 

 amount of any particular item of expenditure should, or can be, re- 

 duced just because of its comparative magnitude. The following anal- 

 ysis shows the distribution of individual expenditure items existing in 

 towns when sorted according to selected factors which have been 

 shown previously to be important in determining total expenditures. 



Population per Town 



The close relation between population and total town expendi- 

 tures is equally true of every expenditure item which forms a part 

 of the total (Table 7). Net expenditures for education increase from 

 $3,494 per town for towns with a population of less than 400 to $17,- 

 964 per town for towns with a population of 1,000 or more. Similarly, 



