Principle on which should be Based the Division of Company-Taxes between Public and Separate Schools.

When a point of law is ever before the courts it is an evident sign that the legislation governing that issue has been either defective in its basic principle or deficient in its proper application. Such has been the case of the "Company-School-taxes" in the Provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta. Every court in the land has had to deal with this problem, and if legislation is not changed and placed upon a more just and solid basis, it will ever be a source of trouble for the community.

Before dealing with the merit of this school question, we beg to state that the time for co-operation in educational matters has come. The day of wrangling and narrow conceptions has passed, we hope. If there is a sacred liberty ever protected by the British flag it is surely that of education.—The recognition and protection of ethical and religious ideals are the most potent factors of the British Empire. He is a true lover of British ideals who places himself upon that higher level to judge the rights of minorities and the duties of majorities. If our Province of Saskatchewan has not known the sterile struggles of a sister Province it is because this principle has been respected and protected by our legislation. In suggesting a remedy to our laws governing Company-school-taxes, I appeal to that broad and fair minded spirit which seems to characterize our banner Province of the West. The solution we propose would give more satisfaction to the interested parties and relieve the problem of its acrimony.

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In the Provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta the separate schools are an integral part of the public primary educational system. They are not parochial nor private schools, but public separate schools. Their existence is not a favour conceded to the Protestant or Catholic minority, but rather, the acknowledgement of a natural and constitutional right. Therefore the separate schools come under the common law. With the purely public schools, our separate public schools share equal obligations and equal rights. The same official inspection, the same qualifications for teachers, the same curriculum of studies, the same school text-books are required in both cases by the Department of Education. Equal right to public money is recognized in the indiscriminate distribution of Government-grants. So both schools stand side by side with equal duties and equal rights. If this point of law had been kept in view no painful issue would ever be raised; co-operation, and not antagonism, would be the aim of the community at large in the great and sublime work of education. Hard and bitter things have been said in the press, on the platform and even in the pulpit: but they do not change a right. Might itself cannot stamp out RIGHT.

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Public service is the principle of taxation. In return for the benefit which a business corporation derives from dealings with the public, distributive justice demands that part of the profits made, return to the community under the form of taxes. This feature of a business corporation makes it, I would say, soulless. One goes into business not to make a profession of faith, but to make money. He deals with every one indifferently. The dollar of a Christian or of a heathen has the same value as the dollar of a Jew. Were a company to discriminate with the public on lines of creed the public would be justified in retaliating.

Public utility, in matters of Company-taxes, is the basic principle of assessment; it should also be the reason of their equitable distribution. As the money of the public goes to Companies, irrespective of creed, so also should the taxes of these Companies come back to the community, irrespective of creed. As Companies are assessed in school matters for the benefit of the children of the community, the proceeds of the assessment should be therefore divided—not according to the faith of the shareholders of the company, but according to the number of children in each school district. And as the majority rules, the school district in the majority should strike the rate of taxation for both districts.

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The division of Company-taxes according to the faith of the shareholders is neither just, nor practical. It is not just for the reason we have brought forward. The principle involved in the present law is just when the individual is concerned, especially when the individual is the father of a family. As such, one has a right to support the school which his conscience obliges him to support. This natural right, our present law recognizes. But in the case of a company the principle of public utility and not the test of faith should be invoked, we believe.

This present law governing Company-taxes is not practical. The onus is on the Separate School-Board to enlist each year the sympathies of the companies. Before how many Boards of Directors is the matter brought up? The local manager is the one who deals with the problem, and he often is a stranger to the laws of the Province, with no sympathy for separate schools. Facts, stubborn facts, are there to prove our contention. In no city of the Province of Saskatchewan is the Separate School Board getting its part of Company-taxes. This is one of the reasons why our rate is often so high when compared with the Public School rate, and why our Boards are crippled in their finances.

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This simple reasoning should appeal to every fair-minded man. This change of legislation we advocate in the matter of Company-taxes, is not a favour we beg—but the mere recognition of a principle of distributive justice we ask.

NOTE. 1. The argument as presented herein is still stronger when applied to Companies of public utilities such as tramways, express companies, etc., for their nature and profits depend absolutely on the public.

NOTE. 2. SCHOOL LAW OF QUEBEC PROVINCE IN THE MATTER. No. 2892.

"When immovable property of such corporations and companies is within a territory, placed under the administration of two corporations of school commissioners of different religious beliefs, established in virtue of Article 2590, the corporation which comprises the greatest number of rate-payers entered on the valuation roll, shall be bound to levy the taxes affecting such property and to divide the same proportionately to the number of children from five to sixteen years of age residing in each municipality."—62 V. c. 28, s. 399.

[1] This memoir was presented to the Premier of Saskatchewan at a time when this problem was widely discussed in the Press. As the legislation, then enacted, did not bring a satisfactory solution we thought that the argument as presented would be of service for a future date.