WORKING OUT THE TAX. 57 



ment of districts to each, with a specific amount of money to 

 spend, leads to another kind of wastefuhiess. Some districts 

 may have money to spare in the want of any knowledge or in- 

 clination to put it into permanent improvements, while others 

 have too little. In one district teams will often be standing idle 

 witli a surplus of men, while, perhaps, in another there is a 

 want of both. How can you expect any harmony of action 

 with twenty or thirty men to do the work of one first-class, com- 

 petent superintendent ? 



3. And again, that part of the present plan recognized by 

 the law, by which the taxes are or may be worked out, is alto- 

 gether out of date. It is unsound in principle, as Gillespie 

 says, wasteful in practice, and altogether unsatisfactory in its 

 results ; a remnant of the times of feudal vassalage, when the 

 tenure of land required the farmer to make the roads passable 

 for the troops of the lord of the manor. And how absurd it 

 appears on a moment's reflection. Men who may be skilful 

 enough in their own occupations, are taken for the performance 

 of work of which oftentimes they know absolutely nothing. A 

 good ploughman is not necessarily a good watchmaker, and 

 yet to build a good road requires more thought, more skill, 

 more scientific knowledge, than to make a good watch, for the 

 latter is an operation chiefly mechanical, while the former often 

 demands the highest engineering attainment, and to spend 

 money with the greatest degree of economy, even in repairing 

 a common road, requires much judgment, knowledge of materi- 

 als, and practical experience in using and applying them. And 

 yet the law presumes that every man is competent to build a 

 road ! 



And here allow me to quote a paragraph from one of the re- 

 jected essays. The writer says : — 



" I will give some facts which have come under my own obser- 

 vation. One of the towns of this State chose thirty-five survey- 

 ors, as usual, to superintend the repairing of its roads. One of 

 tliem was a fiddler and had no other occujiation at the time. He 

 called out his men, seven old men whose ages ranged from fifty to 

 seventy-five years. It was the custom of the town to add all un- 

 paid taxes to the next year's bill, and some of tliese men had not 

 paid their taxes for six years. They all went to work without any 

 team, with their hoes, and had a jolly time, telUng stories and 



