24 RATES AND TAXES 



obtained by certain classes only. If it is 

 said that the nation will also gain ulti- 

 mately, the reply is that the nation would 

 have gained still more if the parents had 

 been compelled to provide the education 

 at their own expense, and not at the 

 expense of other people. 



In the prolonged controversy that has 

 taken place on the reform of local finance 

 and the controversy has been going on 

 for at least seventy years no position has 

 been more clearly established than that a 

 distinction should be drawn between the 

 rates and taxes that are raised for onerous 

 and beneficial services respectively. The 

 point is that education taxes are beneficial 

 to the classes that receive free education, 

 and onerous to the classes that do not. 

 The principle of betterment might be applied 

 to children just as much as to lands and 

 houses. 



