Page:The Extravagent Expenditure of the London School Board.djvu/12

 radically wrong. A public body which can sanction such a gross waste of the ratepayers' money, stands convicted of being ignorant of the most elementary principles of business.

If the Metropolitan Board of Works, with its heavy Parliamentary Work had proceeded in the same way, the ratepayers would soon have raised a protest against such an outlay, but the fact is, this last-mentioned Board has made its legal work a part of its own staff, with the result of much greater economy than could be obtained by giving the work to an outside firm of solicitors, and paying them the usual fees upon each of the innumerable items. It should also be borne in mind that this item, as with the previous ones, shows an increase out of all proportion to the work done.

The general item for legal expenses appears in the accounts independently of those incurred in connection with the purchase of sites, but suggests the same comments, as do also the legal charges connected with the enforcement of the compulsory bye-laws. What is urgently required is, that the School Board should establish a department of solicitors and pay them by salary, an arrangement which would effect a saving of at least £10,000 a-year. Such an arrangement would have been made at the outset by any Board having due regard to economy.

The relative value of the amount paid in Teachers' Salaries is best estimated by comparing it with the number of children in average attendance, and such a comparison is eminently favourable to the School Board, inasmuch, as the average attendance is continually improving. The first accounts in which this comparison can be made are for Michaelmas, 1874. In these we find that £43,379 was paid as Teachers' Salaries for the half-year upon an average attendance of 66,187 children, representing a cost of 13s. 1d. per child. For Lady-day, 1875, £59,120 was paid for 76,941 children, or 15s. 4d. per child; for Michaelmas, 1875, £76,516 was paid for 90,747 children, or 16s. 10d. per child, and for Lady-day,