§ DR. MACNAMARA (Camberwell, N.)To ask the President of the Board of Education whether he can state the basis of the figures given in columns three and six of the statement of the moneys expended on education recently presented to Parliament.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The figures given in column three of the Return merely states the nominal rate which would be needed on the assessable value to produce the sum named in column two, and similarly in the other rate columns. The actual rate that would have to be levied to produce that sum would usually be higher, because the actual product of a given rate is always less than the nominal, owing to such causes as irrecoverable arrears, reduction on compounding, empty houses, etc. This difference varies greatly, amounting in many places to considerably more than 10 per cent. This will account, in the majority of instances, for any difference between the rate given in the Return and the rate actually levied in any place. But it must further be noted that in the case of counties the county rate basis has been taken, as being the only secure basis for a general comparative Return such as this, though the rates in counties are actually levied under the Education Act on the poor rate basis. Moreover, though the figures in columns two and five are the figures sent in by the various authorities, the sums named may in several cases not have actually been expended during the year, and to that extent the rate actually needed may not have been so high as the figure given in columns three or six after correction as above. The figures in columns four to six are specially liable to differ from the true amounts, since they depend almost wholly on estimates made by the authorities early in 1905. All the foregoing remarks hold true, mutatis mutandis, of the figures given in the Return in respect of education other than elementary. I may add that in reckoning assessable value throughout the Return agricultural land has been taken at half its rateable value; at the same time the Exchequer grants under the Agricultural Rates Act have been included in columns one four.