* With board.

GRADUATED TABLES-FIRST SERIES.

The following Table shows the sums appropriated by the several cities and towns in the State, for the education of each child, between 5 and 15 years of age. The income of the Surplus Revenue and of other funds held in a similar way, when appropriated to schools, is added to the sum raised by taxes, and these sums constitute the amount reckoned as appropriations. The income of such School Funds as were given and are held on the express condition that their income shall be appropriated to schools, is not included. Such an appropriation of their income being necessary to retaining the funds, is no evidence of the liberality of those holding the trust. But if a town appropriates the income of any Fund to its Public Schools, which may be so appropriated or not, at the option of the voters, or when the town has a legal right to use such income in defraying its ordinary expenses, then such an appropriation is as really a contribution to Common Schools as an equal sum raised by taxes. On this account the Surplus Revenue, and sometimes other funds, are to be distinguished from Local School Funds as generally held. The income of the one may be appropriated to schools or not, at the pleasure of the town; the income of the other must be appropriated to schools by the condition of the donation. Funds of the latter kind are usually donations made to furnish means of education in addition to those provided by a reasonable taxation. Committees are expected, in their annual returns, to make this distinction in relation to School Funds.

Voluntary contributions are not included in the amount which is divided, in order to ascertain the sum appropriated to each child. In many towns such contributions, however liberal, are not permanent, and cannot be relied upon as a stated provision. They are often raised and applied to favor particular districts or schools, or classes of scholars, and not to benefit equally all that attend the Public Schools. Besides, the value of board and fuel gratuitously furnished is determined by the mere estimate of individuals, and is therefore uncertain; while the amount raised by taxes, being in money, has a fixed and definite value, and is a matter of record. Still, the contributions voluntarily made are exhibited in a separate column of the table, as necessary to a complete statement of the provision made by the towns for the education of their children.

The Table exhibits the rank of each city or town in the State, in respect to its liberality in the appropriation of money to its schools, as compared with other cities and towns for the year 1874-75, also its rank in a similar scale for 1873-74. It presents the sum appropriated to each child between 5 and 15.

* Compare the rank of Towns in this Table with their rank in the next or Second Series of Tables, showing the percentage of taxable property appropriated for Schools.