THE RURAL PROBLEM 111 



others.* Yet it by no moans happens that the national 

 exchequer contributes in similar proportions. The amount 

 of relief is haphazard and chaotic. The grant in aid of the 

 Poor Law expenditure in the Fylde Union is equivalent to 

 less than Id. rate ; in the Caxton and Arrington Union it is 

 equivalent to a rate of nearly Is. 6d. 



The Union of Longtown is relieved of over 58 per cent, of 

 its expenditure, but King's Lynn Union of 13 per cent. only. 

 So with education. In Durham each scholar costs 56s. lOd. 

 a year, of which the locality pays 30 per cent. In Middlesex 

 the cost is 72s. 2d., of which the locality pays 53 per cent. 

 In some of the poorest places the locality has to pay 60 per 

 cent, of the cost of educating its children. 



The grants then should be systematised and made con- 

 ditional. They should be paid for each of the great local 

 services, for education and for the children, for sanitation 

 and the care of the sick, for the police, and for roads. When 

 the national standard is not attained the grant would be not 

 forthcoming, the locality would be penalised, and rates would 

 go up. When it is, the locality would receive its grant and 

 the rates would go down. And if larger grants still were 

 given for the attainment of a still higher standard the really 

 progressive communities would have the lowest rates of all. 

 Lunacy, like crime, should be made a national charge. 

 Vagrancy and unemployment should also be taken over 

 entirely by the central government. All old persons and 

 persons permanently disabled at whatever age should receive 

 State pensions, as some do at present. The existing Poor 

 Rate would be thus obviated and national burdens be borne 

 as such by the national exchequer. 



The adoption of this policy would remove the obstacle 

 that blocks the way of progress in every rural district. It 

 would relieve industry and popularise reform. After a 

 course of years it would be followed by a still further relief, 

 both of local and national taxation, as a result of the in- 

 creased prosperity and health of the nation at large and the 

 gradual elimination of all the waste and wreckage which at 

 present clogs the wheels of national progress. 



* Report of the Royal Commission on Local Taxation. Cd. 638. 

 1896. Page 74. 



