GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE: TAXATION 269

instead of a greater volume of the material means of production.
 This is certainly a fundamental breach of the principle
of non-interference, but experience shows that the end
sought could not be secured without such interference, since
parents in general do not sufficiently realise the value to
their children of an adequate education, or are unable or unwilling
 to make voluntarily the sacrifices needed to procure
it for their children.
The same reasons, which justify interference on behalf of
children may be applied to the case of women engaged in
industry. In respect to hours and conditions of employment,
restrictions are commonly imposed where women and
children are concerned.
In other cases, there exist natural hindrances, to real
freedom of contract, of a somewhat different character to
those which affect persons whose age implies a lack of
knowledge and judgment in regard to the nature of the
contract, or whose age or sex implies subjection to the
dictation of others in regard to the contracts entered into.
This case may be illustrated by the provision of English law
in regard to dwellings let at rentals below specified limits.
[t is assumed that the contract includes an undertaking on
the part of the person from whom the dwelling is hired that
it is fit for habitation. In view of the incapacity of most
hirers of houses to judge of such matters as the soundness
of plumbing which cannot be seen, and of other matters of
which use alone affords a basis of judgment, and of the fact
that the contract of hire precedes the use which can reveal
defects, the imposition of an obligation to maintain a reasonable
 standard in such matters seems not to interfere with real
freedom of contract. A contract, as to important terms of
which one of the parties to it is necessarily ignorant, does not
possess the characteristics which establish a claim to allow its
adjustment to be settled by the parties directly concerned,
without interference. Moreover, in the case selected for
illustration, another feature calls for attention, exemplifying
a further class of cases where restrictions on freedom of
individual contract are defensible. Though the owner and
hirer of a house are the persons most directly concerned in