RCY7ISHLEY.M:7i: -» f-» •*^.fc> SITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT DY PERCY ASHLEY, M.A. LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD I.K'TI :kek AT TUK LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICA1 SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITY OK LONDON ' * . . * * LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK 34 HENRIETTA STREET, 'U'.C. AND KDINUUltfiH 1905 • • The Shilling Scientific Series The following Vols, are now ready or in the Press :— BALLOONS, AIRSHIPS, AND FLYING MACHINES. By Gertrude Bacon. MOTORS AND MOTORING. By Professor DARKY Sl'OONER. KADIUM. By Dr. IlAMPSON. TELEGRAPHY WITH ANJ) WITHOUT WIRES. By W. J. White. ELECTRIC , LIGHTING., By .S.. P.. Waikkr, .B.N., • •\.m.i.e.& ; ::;. : .: : ; \:\\ .'.*.' - * ... . . ••• • ••• • .LOCAL. GOVERNMENT. By .«5R£*. Ashley; MtA. : *••.. • • ••- ...... .: « '„.,...... v.. *..r.. _:<..*. «•« • • • ■ * (*»... Others in Preparation ' Printed by Bam.antyne, Hanson &> Co. At the Ballantyne Press T PREFATORY NOTE in TnE purpose of this small volume is to provide an elementary sketch of English local govern- ment as it is at the present day ; and it is hoped that it may be useful to the citizen who wishes to know something about the organisation and o working of those local authorities on which his comfort so much depends, and to the student as T— I cj an introduction to the larger and more elaborate works set out in the Appendix. Necessarily many details have been omitted, and many matters dealt with briefly which deserved an ampler treatment ; whilst the method of pre- sentation adopted has necessitated some amount of repetition. C3 -X. P. A. June 20, 1905, 412741 CONTENTS PAGE PREFATORY NOTE v CHAP. I. Introductory . . . . . ."• .7 II. The Areas and Authorities . . . .14 III. The Areas and Authorities (continued) . . 30 IV. The Central Authorities 43 V. Public Assistance 57 VI. Education 71 VII. Public Health 85 VIII. Public Health (continued) . . 96 IX. (I.) Transit. — (II.) Protection op Life and Property Ill X. Municipal Policy and Municipal Trading . 125 XI. Local Finance 140 XII. Local Finance (continued) 156 XIII. Local Authorities and (I.) the Leoislature, (II.) the Courts op Justice .... 168 APPENDIX. A Brief Bibliography . . . .185 INDEX 188 vi ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY "Local government" means, in England, the dis- charge by the inhabitants of a locality, generally through elected representatives, of the powers and duties within that area with which they have been invested by Parliament, or which in rarer cases devolve upon them at Common Law. In the exercise of their responsibilities they may be left altogether uncontrolled except by the legislature; but more usually they are subjected to the autho- rity of departments of the central government — authority which varies in extent from the strictest and most minute control to mere guidance and suggestion. The advantages of this division of the labour of public administration between central and local authorities are obvious. The tasks undertaken by the modern state are so groat and various that the attempt to accomplish them all by means of cen- tral departments and professional officials alone is doomed inevitably to failure ; all experience shows thai sooner or later a breakdown is certain. More- over, bo l'»ng as a uniform minimum of efficiency is 8 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT attained for the whole country, it is for many public services desirable that varieties of local conditions, desires, and needs should be considered ; and no central department alone can have the requisite knowledge for this, or be sure that its local pro- fessional agents are not misleading it. That end is best secured, and undue centralisation is avoided, by allowing to the inhabitants of a locality, through their elected representatives, as large a share as possible in the conduct of public services ; and this has the additional advantages that it arouses local interest and gives to a considerable number of persons some training in the conduct of affairs. But it must not be forgotten that the work of all authorities, central and local, is " state action," though we commonly use this term only for the activities of the central government. There is no difference in principle between central and local action — the latter is only a particular branch of the former, developed for the special reasons which have been indicated. If we exclude certain matters which are evidently unsuited to decentralised administration, such as the army, navy, and post-office, it is impossible to make any lists of services which can and can not be entrusted to local authorities. The practice of civilised states differs greatly, because of differences of purpose, of economic conditions, of social organi- sation ; and Great Britain holds a unique position among the states of Europe in respect to the amount of work done and independence enjoyed by the localities. Similarly it is idle to attempt to lay down any general rules as to the amount of central INTRODUCTORY 9 control advisable for decentralised services ; each case must be considered separately, and even for one and the same service the amount may vary from time to time and from place to place. The aim must be to secure a minimum standard of attain- ment and efficiency, without diminishing local initiative and interest ; and for this reason it may in some instances be wiser merely to encourage and guide action, instead of endeavouring to en- force it. The nineteenth century witnessed in England a great increase of the functions of the state, and an extraordinary development of local government. The reform of Parliament reacted upon the whole of national administration, and the great construc- tive changes in the formation and powers of local authorities followed close upon the extensions of the parliamentary franchise. The first of these movements was in the decade 1830-1840. The Reform Act of 1832 was only part of a general awakening ; it was followed rapidly by the first parliamentary grant for National Education (1833), the reorganisation of 'Poor Law administration (1834), and of the Municipal Corporations (1835), and the beginnings in 1838 of the demand for sanitary legislation. This last, due in part to the action of the Poor Law Commissioners, and in part to the appearance in England of Asiatic cholera, was the commencement of that ever-growing recognition of the needs of national sanitation which was to be one of the most potent causes of the develop- ment of local authorities. The Reform Act of 1867 did not bring such sweeping changes in its train. \ 10 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT but it was followed by the erection, in 1870 of some- thing approaching to a national system of education, and by great improvements in sanitary adminis- tration in 1872 and 1875. And meanwhile the constant discovery of new administrative needs had produced a great number of authorities of various kinds, some with general powers and others autho- rised to deal only with certain particular matters ; and the piecemeal procedure of half a century had resulted by 1888 in a " chaos of overlapping areas and conflicting authorities. -11 The grant of the parliamentary franchise to the agricultural labourers in 1884 brought, four years later, the long-contemplated overthrow of the old county administrative system, hitherto in the hands of the Justices of the Peace alone, and the establish- ment of elected county councils, followed in 1894 by the district and parish councils. The so-called ad hoc system of independent authorities for single purposes doubtless had advantages in some cases, but the tendency at present (most strongly marked by the recent abolition of school boards) is towards the concentration of powers in the hands of a small number of important bodies which be- cause of the extent and variety of their functions command general attention and interest. The activity of the local authorities has constantly in- creased, until there is scarcely any part of human life which in some way or another they do not touch; and although there is at present something of an agitation against what is known as " muni- cipal trading, 11 there is no likelihood that the activity of our local administrators will as a whole INTRODUCTORY 1 1 be curtailed — rather, everything points to further and continuous growth. It is characteristic of the English system that the legislature (unlike con- tinental Parliaments) has never attempted to lay down an arbitrary definition of the sphere of action of local authorities not established solely for speci- fic purposes ; and that, on the contrary, the powers which the chief authorities possess of promoting legislation has given them the fullest possible scope for the exercise of their own initiative and energy. Meanwhile there has been a persistent advance of central control. In the legislation after 1832, two conflicting movements were apparent ; the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 subjected the new Poor Law authorities to rigorous control by a central department, whilst the Municipal Corporations Act of the following year gave to the town councils a very full measure of autonomy, and reduced the administrative control over them to a very low point. When between 1848 and 1854 an attempt was made to set up a General Board of Health, which should be as powerful as the Poor Law Board was in its sphere, the result was an absolute failure. But since 1870 the tendency has been entirely in one direction, and the policy of central control, more or less strict, has gained the upper hand. This has been due chiefly to the recognition of the fact thai in the interest of the whole community it is neces- sary to endeavour to secure the maintenance by local authorities of at least a minimum level of effici- ency ; and, consciously or unconsciously, we have been striving to attain this by the extension of tho 12 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT regulative, inspecting, and advisory powers of the central departments, and by the method of grants- in-aid from the National Exchequer. In the open- ing years of the twentieth century, in spite of some signs of reaction in certain directions, everything points to the conclusion already stated, that the growth of decentralised state action (in the form of the municipalisation of public services, and in other ways) will continue ; and with that, for the main- tenance of a national standard, there must come a still further increase in the control of the central over the local authorities. But in spite of this tendency, English local govern- ment is not in any sense bureaucratic. This is perhaps the most characteristic feature of our system as compared with the institutions of our continental neighbours; the local authorities are councils of ordinary citizens entirely dependent upon the electors, and the permanent officials are only their servants, exercising an influence based, not as in continental countries (and especially Prussia) on legal position, but simply on know- ledge and experience. In fact, local government in England is lay administration tempered by profes- sional advice ; whilst to a great extent in continen- tal Europe it is professional administration tempered slightly by lay criticism. Our central departments have no such wide-reaching power of enforcing obedience on the part of the local authorities by administrative processes as is possessed by the bureaucracies of France and Prussia. It is true that they have it partially in the case of Education and Police, for which they can withhold the Exchequer INTRODUCTORY 13 grants if the work is not done to their satisfaction, and in some Public Health matters where there is actual default ; but ordinarily all they can do is to seek the aid of the Courts of Justice if the local administrators will not carry out the law and will not listen to ren*onstrances. The courts so invoked are the ordinary judicial tribunals of the land ; they are not, as in those countries which have a special system of administrative law, a set of tribunals con- stituted in a particular way, and working generally by procedure and rules of law, which differ from those of the ordinary courts, and are intended to safeguard the official against any personal responsi- bility for acts done by him in his official character. And so in England the individual citizen, in any dispute with the authorities, goes for protection or for remedies to the ordinary tribunals, and before these the various authorities and officials cannot invoke any legal privileges. The predominance of the unprofessional adminis- trator, the ever-widening range of the sphere of local government, the subordination of all authorities to the ordinary law of the land applied by the ordinary courts, and the limited extent of the merely ad- ministrative control which the central departments can exercise over the local councils — these are then the must characteristic traits of the system of local o-overnment which we are now to examine in detail. CHAPTER II THE AREAS AND AUTHORITIES Before we proceed to examine the constitution of the various areas and authorities established in Eng- land and Wales for the purposes of local government, it will be convenient to set out the general scheme under recent enactments — the Local Government Acts of 1888 and 1894, the London Government Act of 1899, and the Education Acts, 1902 and 1903. It is as follows : — The Administrative County. The County Borough {i.e. a municipal borough not subject to, and not represented upon, a county council). ' The distinction between these three is not according to The Municipal Borough The Urban District The Rural District The Parish — Urban and Rural population — it is due in many cases merely to his- torical accidents. 'The former exists, so far as administration is concerned, simply for certain poor law purposes and has no auto- nomy ; the latter is a real local government area, Within the last four areas the council of the administrative county of which they form part has 14 THE AREAS AND AUTHORITIES 15 powers and duties, and it also exercises an amount of supervision which is far greater in the rural portions than in the urban districts, and is very slight, and in fact hardly exists at all, in the municipal boroughs. The Poor Law Union is an area for the relief of the poor ; it is commonly a group of parishes not necessarily coextensive with any other area, and may be entirely urban, entirely rural, or mixed. The Metropolis has a special organisation, which must be considered separately. In addition to the authorities of these areas, there are a number of miscellaneous bodies which are not universal. Such are Port Sanitary Authorities (some- times identical with town or urban district councils) ; Harbour and Dock Authorities (also often identical with town councils) ; Commissioners of Sewers, and Drainage Boards ; River Conservancy Boards ; Joint Committees for Asylums and for various other poor law purposes ; Burial Boards ; and a number of Joint Boards and Committees of different kinds for particular purposes. Some of these will be men- tioned incidentally in the following survey, but in a general sketch like the present it is unnecessary to describe them in detail. i. The Administrative County The Ancient County is the historical division of England and Wales, and still remains an area for parliamentary and judicial purposes, but its im- portance as an area for local government ceased when, in 1888, the administrative powers of the Justices of the Peace were transferred to the new 16 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT elective bodies. It is true that the justices still issue licences for the sale of intoxicating liquors, and license private lunatic asylums and inebriate homes, but these are mere fragments of their former duties. For the purposes of local government the county is divided into the administrative county or counties and county boroughs. These latter are municipal boroughs which, either because they have popula- tions of 50,000, or for other reasons in rare cases, are withdrawn from the authority of the councils of the administrative counties ; they have the same organisation as an ordinary municipal borough, but their councils exercise the powers of a county council within their areas. The administrative counties are in all (including London) 62 in number, and in most cases they are the same in extent, except for slight differences of boundaries, as the ancient counties ; but seven of these — York- shire, Lincolnshire, Sussex, Hampshire, Northampton- shire, Cambridgeshire, and Suffolk — are divided into two or three administrative counties, and London constitutes a county by itself. In each the authority is the county council, 1 con- sisting of members elected triennially by popular vote (women are not eligible), and aldermen elected for six years by the councillors. The number of councillors varies according to local conditions ; the aldermen are one-third of the number of councillors and, apart from the longer tenure of their seats, they have no special position. Each council elects a chairman and vice-chairman for one year, but 1 The London County Council is described later. THE AREAS AND AUTHORITIES 17 they may be, and commonly are, re-elected. The electorate includes every person (not being an alien or disqualified under any Act of Parliament) who is of full age, is "on the 15th July in any year and has been for the preceding twelve months, in occupa- tion of premises of the clear yearly value of ten pounds, has resided during that period within seven miles of the county boundary, is rated to the relief of the poor, and is not in arrears of payment. Contested elections for the councillors' seats have been comparatively rare; in the first year (1889) for 3240 seats there were 1749 elections, but the number declined rapidly until, in 1901, only 433 contests took place in 3349 electoral districts. The controversies aroused by the Education Act of 1902 increased the number greatly at the elections of 1904; but that is probably only a temporary phenomenon, and in very few places outside London do the county council elections form the subject of organised party action. In most cases the councils are filled by members of much the same social classes as supply the bench of justices, and only to a slight extent by representatives of the lower middle and working classes ; these latter are excluded, in part by the difficulty of giving up the amount of time needed when the county centre can be reached only by a long journey, and still more by the fact that social position still counts for much with the electors. It is on the whole true that, " in spite of a democratic constitution, the classes who had, until 1888, the privilege of managing county affairs still continue to do so, a de facto monopoly of wealth and position being substituted for a constitutional privilege." B 18 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT But the councils generally command public confi- dence ; they rarely show political partisanship ; they have been able to draw into their ranks much ad- ministrative ability ; and in the conduct of their work they have shown considerable energy and enterprise. That work is extensive and varied. They super- vise the sanitary administration of the rural district councils, and themselves have some Public Health powers ; they maintain county bridges and main roads, either directly or through the district councils ; their consent is needed for some of the acts of rural district and parish councils ; they administer the Acts relating to allotments, diseases of animals, weights and measures, and the sale of food and drugs ; they can establish reformatories and industrial schools ; with central approval they may make and work light railways ; they may promote and oppose Bills in Parliament ; they make bye-laws for a number of matters for the county ; they can hold and manage county property, levy rates, and borrow money (with the consent of the Local Government Board). Through their representatives on the Standing Joint Committee they control the county police forces. Finally, the Education Act of 1902 has greatly in- creased their work and responsibility by entrusting to them not only the power of supplying or aiding " higher education " (where hitherto they had been limited to the provision of technical instruction), but also the duty of securing an adequate supply of elementary education. Further, the Local Govern- ment Board may transfer to any or all of the councils any powers, duties, or liabilities of the central depart- THE AREAS AND AUTHORITIES 19 ments concerned with local administration — a power hitherto unemployed but which may be useful in relieving the pressure upon the central authorities. In the year -1902-3, for the 61 councils (excluding London) the total expenditure was £9,566,366 (in- cluding £1,118,272 defrayed out of loans), the prin- cipal items being: main roads, £2,393,261; police, £1,899,222 ; payments to other authorities, chiefly from the Exchequer Contributions, £1,496,132 ; and education, £720,559. This last item will naturally show a very large increase in the next few years, since the councils have to maintain, not only the old board schools, but practically all elementary schools. The ordinary county council meets only some four times a year, and its business then is to do little more than receive the reports of its committees, to decide any important questions of policy raised therein, and to pass the resolutions needed to give effect to the committees' recommendations. All the real administrative work is done by these com- mittees, which meet as often as they think desirable ; every councillor is a member of at least one com- mittee, and in this way takes part in the actual conduct of the work, and not merely in the discus- sions on the council. This activity of the committees is peculiarly English ; in most continental countries, and also in the United States, the tendency has been to give the administrative Avork to a separate branch of the local authority, and not to the coun- cillors as such — sometimes these latter have simply deliberative functions. The result is that thore are often conflicts between the two branches — and 20 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT these we escape ; whilst our method gives the coun- cillors a much keener interest in their work. Of these committees, some are "statutory," i.e. required by law ; such are the committees for finance, asylums, diseases of animals, allotments, small hold- ings, and now education. This last body is to con- tain, besides the council members, a number of co-opted persons, including women. The Standing Joint Committee of a county council and Quarter Sessions for the control of the police is also statutory, and occupies a peculiar position, since it is practically independent of the council, but reports to it and receives from it the money which it requires. The other committees of a council are not compulsory, but are appointed for the purposes and to the number which each council thinks desirable ; and a committee may appoint sub-committees. As a county council usually meets only four times a year, and many ad- ministrative details cannot wait that length of time before settlement, it is authorised to delegate to the committees any of its powers, so as to enable them to act without waiting for approval; but the power of levying a rate or raising a loan cannot be so delegated. The chief officers of a county council are the clerk, who is also clerk of the peace, an education secretary or director, one or more county coroners, one or more county surveyors, a county treasurer, a public analyst, inspectors of weights and measures, and generally (though this is at the option of the council) a medical officer. They receive their directions from the committees, and not from the council as a whole; and it is to the committees that they report. THE AREAS AND AUTHORITIES 21 ii. The Urban District The term ." Urban District " when strictly used applies to any non-rural area in which there is a sanitary authority, and it therefore includes municipal boroughs, which from the point of view of Public Health administration are urban districts. But the term is commonly used only for the areas organised under the Local Government Act of 1894 ; these are districts which existed prior to 1894 as Improvement Districts under Commissioners established by local Acts, or as Local Board of Health Districts under the Public Health Acts, and other areas since formed by the county councils and the Local Government Board. There were in the year 1902-3 812 such urban districts, with populations ranging from less than 300 to (in extreme cases) over 75,000. Their organis- ation is quite simple ; in each the authority is the council, consisting solely of members elected either one-third each year, or all every third year ; women are eligible, and there are no aldermen. The chair- man (who holds office for one year but may be re- appointed) can be elected by the council from outside, and during his tenure of office he is a justice of the peace for the county. The electors are all persons (including women), not being aliens or disqualified by parliamentary enactment, who are on the local government register of electors or the parliamentary register; they include therefore married women and lodgers. The same qualification holds in rural districts and parishes. The council must meet once a month at least, and it works by means of 22 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT committees, all or any of which can include persons who are not members of the council. To those committees which deal with sanitary and highway business all the powers of the council in those matters may be delegated, except as regards the levying of a rate or the raising of loans. The councils are the sanitary and highway autho- rities for their areas ; they may take over the main- tenance of the main roads within their districts from the county council, in return for the payment of an annual sum; they may make use of the " Adoptive Acts " for the provision of burial-grounds, allotments, baths and washhouses, libraries, open spaces, museums, and gymnasiums ; they may make bye-laws of various kinds ; they can establish isola- tion hospitals ; and may exercise any powers which they can get under Provisional Orders or Private Acts for gasworks, tramways, electric light and power works, &c. Under the Education Act, 1902, the council of any urban district with 20,000 inhabitants > may be an authority for elementary education, and the council of any district, whatever its size, may supply, or aid the supply of education other than elementary; but in both these matters the powers can be surrendered to the local county council, and this is being done fairly generally by the smaller areas. For a number of purposes a combination of districts with a joint committee is allowed. It is 1 evident from this list that the work of the urban district councils may be very extensive and important, and there are some whose activities are greater than those of many town councils. The THE AREAS AND AUTHORITIES 23 principal officials in the service of an urban district council are the clerk, treasurer, surveyor, medical officer of health, and sanitary inspectors, and the heads of any " trading " departments which may be established. In 1902-3 the expenditure of the urban districts was £12,267,412, of which £3,916,421 was defrayed out of loans. The chief items were : maintenance and cleaning of highways, streets, and bridges, £2,396,608 ; sewerage and 'sewage disposal, £1,947,922 ; gasworks, waterworks, tramways, elec- tric light undertakings, and markets, £3,187,334. As regards this last item it should be pointed out that almost exactly half of it was defrayed out of loans, and that the receipts from the undertakings (not including any allowance for the value of light- ing and water supplied to local authorities for their own purposes) were £1,600,260. The only sub- stantial differences between the position of a large urban district with an active council and a municipal borough of the same size are that the former has not the formal dignity and some of the privileges connected with the administration of justice and police which the municipalities enjoy, and that it is much more strictly controlled by the Local Government Board, which audits its accounts. iii. Tfie Rural District From 1875 the rural portion of each Poor Law Union (a group of parishes combined together for the administration of poor relief)— that is, the part of each union which was not in an urban area — 24 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT formed the rural sanitary district, with the board of guardians as the authority. But some of these lay in two counties, and the Act of 1894 directed that in such a case each part should become a rural district. Each of these areas (there are 672 of them) has a council, elected for three years, and women are eligible: each rural district councillor is the representative of his electoral division (parish) on the board of guardians for the Poor Law Union of which it forms part. One-third of the members retire every year, unless the county council allows the whole body to retire every third year. The chairman is ex-officio a justice for the county. The rural district councils have charge of the sanitary administration of the whole country out- side the urban districts, and for this purpose, in addition to the ordinary powers which they possess, the Local Government Board may confer on any council, for the whole or part of its area, any or all of the powers of an urban sanitary authority. This is constantly done, and in the year 1903-4 alone the Board granted powers of this kind to 128 rural districts. As sanitary authorities the councils may carry out drainage schemes, provide hospitals for infectious diseases, and do many other things under the Public Health Acts ; they may provide allotments ; they may carry out schemes under the Housing Acts ; and they can make arrangements for an adequate water supply. Some of the sanitary duties may be delegated to the parish councils, or to parochial committees. Next to sanitation the most important part of their work is highway administration ; they are responsible for THE AREAS AND AUTHORITIES 25 all the roads (some 95,000 miles in length) which are not main roads, and they may see to the upkeep of main roads as the agents of the county councils. Out of a total ordinary expenditure in 1902-3 of £3,917,629 by the rural districts, more than five- eighths (£2,624,000) was upon highways and bridges, and of the total debt of £4,180,105 more than £3,610,000 had been incurred for sewerage and waterworks. These figures illustrate better than anything else the nature of the work of these authorities ; they act (as do all English councils) mainly by committees, which as regards formation and working are similar to those of urban districts ; and on the whole, considering the difficulties which have to be encountered in the more sparsely popu- lated areas, the work is well done. The principal officers are the clerk (who is generally also clerk to the guardians), treasurer, medical officer, a sanitary inspector and surveyor (though these last two offices are often held together). iv. The Parish The unit of local government is the Parish, which for this purpose is defined as " a place for which a separate poor-rate is or can be made, or a separate overseer is or can be appointed." The number of such parishes was 14,797 in 1902-3 ; but only " rural " parishes (i.e. those which lie within a rural district) have a special organisation for local govern- ment purposes. In every parish, urban and rural, there exists for ecclesiastical purposes a vestry, which may be 20 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT " open " or " common " — in which case all ratepay- ing inhabitants may attend ; or it may be " select," generally in those parishes which have adopted Hobhouse's Act of 1831, and then it is composed of elected vestrymen. In either case it is concerned solely with ecclesiastical matters, such as the elec- tion of churchwardens and the maintenance of the church. In an urban district, unless the power has been transferred by an order of the Local Government Board to the urban district council, the vestry still nominates the overseers of the poor — but in most cases the power has been so transferred. The ecclesiastical parish is, however, not always now identical with the civil parish in urban areas. For general administration the rural parishes alone are important. In each there is a parish meeting, of all persons who are on the local govern- ment and parliamentary registers ; it elects its own chairman. When the parish has a population of 300 or more, it elects a parish council, either at the parish meeting or by poll ; and for this body women and persons living within three miles of the parish boundaries are eligible. Parishes with populations of between 300 and 100 can require the county council to authorise them to elect councils, and even parishes with less than 100 inhabitants can do so if they can obtain permission. On the other hand, parishes may be combined by order of their county council ; in fact county councils and the Local Government Board have power to unite, divide, or alter parishes. In the year 1902-3 there were 12,985 rural parishes; and of these 7250 were entitled to parish councils, and the remainder to THE AREAS AND AUTHORITIES 27 parish meetings only, There are some 2000 parishes with less than " 100 inhabitants, and about nine- tenths of the total number have populations of less than 1000. The parish meeting is held at least twice a year in those parishes which have no council ; its officers are the chairman, and the overseers who are ap- pointed by it for the discharge of certain duties connected with the poor law, and for the making of electoral and jury lists. The chairman and overseers form a body corporate for the holding of parish property, and the chairman conducts whatever ad- ministrative business there may be. In the other parishes a meeting must be held at least once a year, but it can be more frequent. The number of members of the council ranges from five to fifteen, and is fixed by the county council. A parish council elects whatever committees it thinks de- sirable ; and it has the same power as a district council in the matter of co-opting on the committees persons not members of its own body. A parish council or meeting may acquire rights of way, and control or maintain footpaths, manage civil parish property, and apply (with consent of the parish meeting) the Allotments Acts and the various other Adoptive Acts as to recreation grounds, libraries, baths and washhouses, burial-grounds, light- ing; it may provide protection against fire, and watch local sanitary conditions in order to keep the rural district council informed — by consent of that body it may take over some of its sanitary powers ; if the district council neglects its work the parish may appeal to the county authorities. The parish 28 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT council or meeting is now also represented upon the committees of managers of all public elementary schools. There is then plenty of work which might be done by a parish council ; but the fact that very little is done is scarcely the fault of the parishes. The expenditure of these small authorities furnishes a fair though not exact index of their activity: in 1902-3, out of 7250 parishes entitled to parish councils, 6531 had financial transactions of some kind ; but of the remaining 5735 parishes only 390 had any receipts and expenditure. They spent in all £228,917 (and £25,332 out of loans). The largest item was nearly £60,000 for lighting, and the next two items of importance were £39,500 for the purposes of the Burial Acts, and £31,000 for allotments. They spent £9996 on footpaths and rights of way, £9271 on protection against fire, £7232 on commons and open spaces, £759 on libraries, and £175 on baths and washhouses. Nine- tenths of the outstanding debt had been incurred under the Burial Acts. There were 84 joint boards appointed by parish councils, but their total expen- diture was only £3388. Rural conditions vary greatly: in some parishes there is no one to take the initiative, and little is done, whilst in others the presence of a single enlightened and active councillor has resulted in much successful work. But there is always the financial difficulty; the general rates which may be levied for parish purposes, and the special rates under the Adoptive Acts, are nearly all limited ; most of the parishes have no large rateable value, THE AREAS AND AUTHORITIES 29 and very little money could be procured, even if the general dislike to anything involving an in- crease of the rates could be overcome. In spite of these difficulties some of the parish councils have succeeded in doing a fair amount of useful work ; but for the parishes with only a parish meeting, and even for the majority of the others, there seems no clear reason for the continuance of the effort to retain them as administrative areas. Practically all the work of local government is done in them by the rural district councils, and it would simplify matters to recognise this in form as well as in fact. CHAPTER III THE AREAS AND AUTHORITIES— (continued) iv. The Municipal Borough A Municipal Borough is an urban area which has received a charter of incorporation from the Crown, and is governed under the Municipal Corporations Act of 1882. It enjoys a certain privileged status, and to-day new charters are granted only after an enquiry, and applications for them to the Privy Council are often refused; but at the reform of 1835 many very small and unimportant corporators were left in the possession of municipal rank, and consequently there are now extraordinary differences between the municipal boroughs. At the head of the list comes Liverpool, with some 725,000 in- habitants, and there are 30 other boroughs with populations exceeding 100,000 ; whilst at the other end there are no less than 67 with populations of under 5000, with Montgomery (1034) and Hedon (1020) last of all. Certain boroughs (69 in number) — mainly those which have more than 50,000 in- habitants — are " county boroughs," exempted from the authority of the county councils in whose areas they are geographically situated, and their councils have, in addition to their ordinary powers, most of those exercised by a countv council. 80 THE AREAS AND AUTHORITIES 31 There are other differences between the boroughs. Some of these are matters of status : there are boroughs which rank as " cities," either because they are the seats of bishops or because they have been granted that title by the Crown (as Sheffield) ; in a small number the chief magistrate is styled "Lord Mayor." More important by far are the differences connected with the administration of justice : some boroughs have a stipendiary magistrate appointed by the Crown; many have a separate Commission of the Peace ; and some of these latter have also Quarter Sessions in which justice is administered, not by a bench of magistrates, but by a legal officer, the Recorder, whose appointment is in the gift of the Crown. It should be added that there are a few " counties of cities or towns," and these have sheriffs of their own. From the point of view of local government the sole important distinction is between county and non-county boroughs, and this does not affect the municipal constitution. In each borough the authority is the town council, which discharges two functions distinct in law and to some extent also in fact so far as finance is concerned ; it is the representative body charged with the conduct of " municipal affairs," and it is also the urban sanitary authority. It consists of from nine to seventy-two (or in a few cases even more) councillors (women are ineligible) elected for three years, one-third retiring annually; and aldermen (one-third of the ii umber of councillors) elected for six years by the councillors. The electors are all persons who arc of full age ; are, on the 15th July in any year, and have 32 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT been for the preceding twelve months, in occupation of premises of the annual value of ten pounds, and reside in the borough or within seven miles thereof; are rated to the relief of the poor, and are not in arrears as to payment of rates. Unmarried women, if they fulfil the other conditions, are qualified to be electors. The receipt of poor relief (except medical attendance), during the twelve months, is a dis- qualification. In municipal elections contests are frequent, and are commonly more or less on the lines of party politics. The Mayor is elected by the whole council, of which he need not be a member ; he holds office for one year, but is fre- quently re-elected, especially in the smaller boroughs. The Mayor is charged with no special functions; he is ex officio a member of all committees, he is a justice of the peace and chairman of the borough bench during his year of office, and remains a magistrate for the ensuing year, and he represents the borough at all official ceremonies. His influence upon the municipal administration and policy may be very considerable, but it is based only upon his personal ability, experience, and force ; he has no special powers like to those exercised by the American or French mayors or the German burgo- masters, who all have supreme control of the administrative work of their cities — the councils there existing only for the purposes of deliberation and criticism. The aldermen are usually chosen from those councillors who have served longest, though this rule is sometimes overthrown for party purposes ; like the county aldermen they do not form a separate chamber, except in the unreformed THE AREAS AND AUTHORITIES 33 city of London, whose constitution will be described later. The powers of a town council in its twofold character are almost too numerous to be specified. It has the right to acquire and manage municipal property ; it is the public health authority, and deals with drainage and sewerage, water-supply, lighting, markets, and street improvements, and may provide cemeteries and hospitals for infectious diseases ; it can carry out housing schemes ; it may apply the Adoptive Acts in regard to libraries, baths and washhouses, parks and open spaces, museums, art galleries, and gymnasiums ; it may establish tram- ways of any kind ; and it may make bye-laws " for the good rule and government of the borough." Boroughs with more than 10,000 inhabitants may have separate police forces, but they do not all make use of this right. All county boroughs, and a number of others having Quarter Sessions, are required to provide accommodation for pauper lunatics, and they may add to this for lunatics who are not paupers. In all county boroughs the municipal councils are the authorities for elemen- tary and higher education ; all other boroughs, whatever their size, may contribute to, or provide, higher education, but only those with populations of 10,000 or more are to be distinct areas for ele- mentary education, unless they choose to surrender their powers to the local county council. This difference between boroughs with 10,000 inhabitants and boroughs with less applies in a number of other matters, as police, the administration of the Acts relating to discuses of animals, weights and c 34 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT measures, and the sale of food and drugs ; boroughs with 10,000 inhabitants usually administer these matters themselves, whilst the smaller ones are merged in the county. Finally, a municipal borough may exercise any other powers which it can induce Parliament to grant to it by a Private Act, and of recent years there has been a great extension of municipal activity by this means. The munici- palities are almost entirely independent, in the exercise of their legal powers, of any outside control whatsoever. General expenses are defrayed out of the borough fund, which is supplied by the revenue from municipal property supplemented by the pro- ceeds of a uniform rate ; whilst sanitary expenses are usually met out of the district rate, levied on a slightly different valuation. All town councils work through committees. Some of these are "statutory," as the watch com- mittee (where there is a separate police force), the education committee (on which there must be co- opted members), and the committees for lunacy and diseases of animals in boroughs which are separate areas for those purposes. Others are appointed by a council at its pleasure ; no co-opted members are permitted except on the education committee, and indeed they are usually not desired. It has been pointed out that a county council can delegate to its committees any or all of its powers except those connected with finance ; but a town council cannot do this except for the education committee — for all others the Act of 1882 requires that the proceedings " shall be submitted to the council for its approval," the detailed application THE AREAS AND AUTHORITIES 35 of this rule being left to be settled by the standing orders of each council. In practice a report from the committee is usually presented at each meeting ; some recommendations are passed en bloc, whilst for others, usually those involving expenditure above a certain amount, separate resolutions are required. The principal officer of a town council is the town clerk, who is its secretary and legal adviser, and is in many cases the ruling spirit of the administration, becoming such by reason of his permanent position, knowledge, and experience, but not because of any legal status. Other officials are the borough treasurer, and the heads of the various administrative departments, which may be few or many, according to the extent of the municipal activities. It will be evident from what has already been said as to the diversities between the boroughs in size, that the extent and quality of their work differs enormously ; and that in many cases urban districts are much more important than many of the municipalities. But in the great boroughs the amount of work is very large and varied, and the sphere of municipal activity is ever widening. It is not necessary here to describe it in detail — its general character is sufficiently well known, and some special problems connected with it will be discussed later. But it is perhaps worth while to remark here that the ability and energy displayed is not confined to the large towns, but is becoming more and more general, alike in boroughs and urban districts. The total ordinary expenditure of tin: municipalities was for l ( Ji)'2-','> Xilu^OJ/jOB, and the 36 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT expenditure out of loans £17,119,534. The follow- ing table shows the principal items, and the amounts in the loan column may serve to indicate the lines of development. (The expenditure by the school boards in that year is not included in the above totals.) Ordinary Expenditure ] Expenditure. out of Loans. Debt Charges £9,985,268 Gasworks 4,743,392 £762,666 Electric Lighting 725,223 3,053,845 Public Lighting . 1,057,026 Streets and Roads 2,624,496 2,690,160 Private Street Im- } provements 933,156 100,740 Tramways . 1,961,318 3,783,739 Police 1,641,078 132,031 Establishment Charges } Salaries, &c. 1,418,161 ... Waterworks 1,250,584 2,559,996 Scavenging (other than streets) } 1,160,249 218,199 Sewerage, &c. 847,112 970,331 Education . 544,379 ... Hospitals 514,763 373,589 Parks, &c. . 398,969 511,918 Museums and Libx-arie s 339,710 Asylums 122,952 241,761 Housing 49,502 483,221 v. The Poor Law Union The Poor Law Union is the area formed for the purposes of the relief of the poor under the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1834. It may be a single THE AREAS AND AUTHORITIES 37 parish, but it is commonly, as its name implies, a group of parishes ; " the general idea on which the union was formed was that of taking a market town as a centre, and uniting the surrounding parishes, the inhabitants of which resorted to its market, such a centre being supposed to be con- venient for the attendance of guardians and of parish officers. A limiting principle was that in the first instance the union should be small enough for the guardians to have a personal knowledge of all the details of its management" (Wright and Hobhouse, p. 9). The unions are 657 in number (including 10 " contributory out-relief unions "), and they may be entirely rural, or entirely urban, or partly urban and partly rural. The authority in each is the Board of Guardians ; the members are specially elected only in unions which are entirely urban, or in the urban portions of mixed unions ; elsewhere the persons elected as rural district coun- cillors are the representatives of their electoral areas on the Boards of Guardians. Women are eligible. Each Board chooses its own chairman and vice-chair- man, who need not be members; it may co-opt not more than two persons, and it can appoint whatever committees of its own members it thinks necessary. The main task of the guardians is the relief of the poor, and their work in that matter will be described fully in a later chapter. But they have a number of other duties. It is natural that they should be entrusted with the levying of most of the local rates for local purposes, making the assessments and en- forcing the collection through the overseers of the several parishes; for the poor rate is the oldest rate 412741 38 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT in force, and the machinery established to collect it, and the valuation of property made for it, could be conveniently used for rates imposed later. They are still responsible for the enforcement of the Vaccination Acts — this is a survival of the time prior to 1894 when they were sanitary authorities; and they appoint the registrars of births, deaths, and marriages. Their principal officers are the clerk, treasurer, relieving officers, vaccination officers, poor law medical officers, and the workhouse staff; and they may appoint paid collectors of rates. For some special purposes {e.g. provision of poor law schools) combinations of unions are permitted. vi. The Metropolis The Metropolis was originally formed by the Metropolis Management Act of 1855, which denned it to include the area of the city of London and certain parishes specified in the schedule, and set up a central authority (the Metropolitan Board of Works) for a number of purposes. But the govern- ment of London in its present form dates from the Local Government Act, 1888, which created the County Council, and the London Government Act, 1899, which swept away a great number of small authorities and replaced them by a much simpler arrangement of more important bodies — the Metropolitan Borough Councils. The main " central " authority is the London County Council, which governs an administrative county of 121 square miles, with a population in 1901 of 4,536,541. It consists of 118 councillors, THE AREAS AND AUTHORITIES 39 elected (two for each parliamentary division) for three years, and 19 aldermen elected by the council for six years. It elects a chairman, vice-chairman, and deputy-chairman from its own ranks. The work of administering an area with a popula- tion as large as that of some continental states is necessarily very great, and fortunately London has so far not experienced any lack of men both willing and able to do the work ; it has drawn into the council a great amount of varied experience and ability. It is a noteworthy fact that although the elections are practically always fought on party lines, and constant attempts have been made to identify the municipal parties with national political parties, the representation of London on the County Council has never, since the foundation of that body, corresponded to, but has been entirely different from, its representation in Parliament. A real municipal spirit has at last been aroused in the capital, and it has been evoked by, and centres round, the county authority established in 1889. The council deals with main drainage, protection against fire, bridges and ferries (except those in the area of the city), means of transit, street improvements, asylums, housing, parks and open spaces ; it has itself con- siderable powers in public health matters, and exercises a supervisory authority over the sanitary administration of the borough councils; and it has duties and powers in regard to a multitude of other public services. The council has already built up a most elaborate and far-reaching system of " technical education " ; and in 1904 its powers in respect of education were vastly increased by the transference 40 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT to it of all the work of the School Board, and by the grant of additional powers for the supply of higher education. The estimated expenditure (including that on education) not out of loans for the year 1904-5 was £8,996,870. There are several other "central" authorities of one kind and another in the Metropolis. The Corporation of the City of London (about one square mile in extent) consists of a Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Councillors, who are elected by the "liverymen" i.e. the members of the City Com- panies, which are the descendants of the mediaeval gilds. The aldermen form a second chamber, are ex-ojjicio justices of the peace, and serve the office of Lord Mayor for one year in order of seniority. The corporation must be regarded as a "central" authority, since it occupies a special position, due in part to its historic dignity, and in part to its enjoyment of a number of privileges. Thus it is the port sanitary authority, it maintains its own police force, and it has many powers connected with the administration of justice ; it possesses also a great amount of civic property, controls certain markets, and maintains several bridges. The Metropolitan Asylums Board is composed of representatives of the London Boards of Guardians, and of persons nominated by the Local Government Board, and provides asylums for imbeciles, hospitals for infectious diseases, and some children's hospitals. The Metropolitan Water Board has recently been formed to take over from private water companies the supply of an area some 620 square miles in extent, and contains representatives of the various THE AREAS AND AUTHORITIES 41 authorities within that area ; the Thames and Lea Rivers are managed by Conservancy Boards which include members nominated by local bodies. Finally, the metropolitan police, who safeguard an area extending to 15 miles from Charing Cross, and including 693 square miles, are under com- missioners appointed by the Home Office. Although the metropolitan police perform many of the duties of what elsewhere is known as " state police " (extradition, &c), the administrative county of London bears practically the whole cost, apart from the contribution which the central government makes to all police forces ; but its council has no voice in the management of the force. The " local " areas of London government are the metropolitan boroughs, twenty-eight in number, with populations ranging from 341,000 in Islington to 53,000 in Stoke Newington. In each there is the usual council of ordinary members, elected for three years, and all retiring every third year, and alder- men elected by the councillors for six years. The whole council elects the Mayor, who is in the same position as the mayor of a municipal borough. The metropolitan boroughs do not enjoy the same status as the municipalities outside London; they lack some of the privileges and powers of the latter, and are subject to considerable control both by the County Council and the Local Government Board. The councils administer the Public Health Acts ; thoy are the highway authorities ; they are respon- sible for the assessment and collection of local rates; and they may make use of the various Adoptive Acts, including those relating to housing. The 42 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT thirty Poor Law Unions of London are not neces- sarily conterminous in area with the metropolitan boroughs. The total cost of London government by all the authorities of all kinds in the year 1902-3 was £22,818,000 out of ordinary revenue, and £7,763,000 out of loans, whilst the total outstand- ing debt at the end of that financial year was £67,515,000. CHAPTER IV THE CENTRAL AUTHORITIES There are five departments of the central adminis- tration which in one way and another are concerned with local government in England ; and it will be convenient to notice at this point their constitution, and the general character of those powers and duties whose detailed application will come before us in subsequent chapters. I — The Departments i. The Home Office The office of Secretary of State for the Home De- partment was established in 1782, but did not take its present form until the year 1801, by which date it had been relieved of military and colonial matters. The Home Secretary is the first and principal Secretary of State, and as such is in a special re- lation to the Sovereign, and is the official channel of communication between the Sovereign and the subject in such matters as petitions and addresses; he exercises the functions which in other countries are entrusted to a Minister of Justice ; he is the authority for the administration of the Factory Acts and other industrial legislation ; and he has a large 43 44 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT number of miscellaneous powers and duties. His chief assistants are a Parliamentary Under-Secretary and a Permanent Secretary. The most important duty of the Home Secretary which brings him into close relations with the local authorities is the control of the police forces of the country. The metropolitan police (but not those of the city of London) are dependent entirely and solely upon him, and are directed by commissioners whom he appoints ; all other forces he inspects, and a cer- tificate of efficiency granted by him on the report of his inspectors is necessary before a local authority can receive its share of the police grant from the central exchequer. Moreover, all " police " bye-laws made by local authorities require his approval. The Factory Acts are administered to a large extent by inspectors appointed by the Home Secretary and subject only to him ; but recent legislation has laid many duties upon the local sanitary authorities in regard to the inspection of workshops, and in that matter they are bound to carry out the directions of the Home Secretary, and to report to him. He is also charged with the supervision of the administration of the Burial Acts; he has powers in regard to lunatics; his approval is required for bye-laws under the Em- ployment of Children Act (1903), and- for housing schemes in the metropolis; and he inspects refor- matory and industrial schools. ii. The Local Government Board By far the greater part of the central control of English local authorities is exercised by the Local THE CENTRAL AUTHORITIES 45 Government Board, which was created in 1 871 to concentrate in one department most of those powers and duties relating to poor relief, public health, and local government generally, which hitherto had been entrusted to various offices, such as the Poor Law Board, the Home Office, and the Privy Council ; it amounts almost to what is elsewhere known as the "ministry of the interior." Since 1871 the incessant increase, with legislative approval, of the activities of local authorities has brought additional work to the department, until there are not lacking signs that it is overburdened. The " Board " consists nominally of a number of Privy Councillors holding high political office, but it never meets ; and the work is done by the President, assisted by a Parlia- mentary Secretary and a Permanent Secretary, with a very large staff. The Board inherited the powers of the Poor Law Board, which had built up a most elaborate system of minute control over all the actions of the local poor law authorities; that has been maintained practically unchanged, and the authority of the Board is supreme in all matters relating to the relief of the poor. It is also the supervising authority for the administration of the enactments relating to public health, but though its powers in this respect are considerable, they are not nearly so extensive as in poor relief; it has, however, special authority to deal with plagues and epidemics. In matters of general local government it can divide and unite areas, alter boundaries, and make regulations as to the constitution of authorities and the conduct of elections. In some cases, for all these three groups 46 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT of powers, the formal approval of Parliament is required for the decisions of the department, but in many cases it is not necessary. The Board has the very important task of watching over the financial operations of the various local bodies ; its approval is usually required for the raising of loans, and it audits the accounts of all local authorities (but not of the councils of municipal boroughs, except for education) and has various powers in connection therewith. Finally, it collects and publishes an- nually all manner of statistical and other information relating to the condition and development of English local government generally. iii. The Board of Education In 1839 a committee of the Privy Council was ap- pointed to administer the annual parliamentary grants for elementary education, and in 1856 this " Educational Establishment of the Privy Council " was combined with the "Establishment for the Encouragement of Science and Art," which had been formed gradually between 1836 and 1853 under the Board of Trade. The Education Department thus created remained in form, and to some extent in reality, under the Privy Council until the year 1899, when its constitution was changed and it became an independent Board. Like the Local Government Board, its membership is merely nominal ; the sole active and responsible member is the President, aided by a Parliamentary Secretary and a Per- manent Secretary. The work of the Board is sufficiently indicated THE CENTRAL AUTHORITIES 47 by its name. It has the general administration of the Education Acts, and for that purpose it con- trols, supervises, and inspects all education in elemen- tary schools, science and art schools, and evening schools, which are supported by public money ; it inspects training colleges aided from public funds ; it may inspect secondary schools which desire it to do so, or it may authorise their inspection by universities or other educational bodies. Its ap- proval is required for all schemes constituting local education authorities ; and it must be con- sulted by those authorities in regard to their plans to supply or aid the supply of higher education, though for this it has no powers like to those which it exercises over elementary education. The Board has three departments — general matters and elemen- tary education, secondary schools, technology and higher education in science and art, and for each there is a staff of inspectors : the secondary schools division is quite small, since the powers of the Board in that direction are new and undeveloped. The Board is assisted by a consultative committee of experts in education, and keeps a register of teachers (compulsory only in the case of elementary teachers) under the supervision of a small special committee of the same kind. iv. The Board of Trade The Board of Trade is the oldest of the Boards which have developed out of committees of the Privy Council, since under various forms it can be traced back to the year 1G22. But it becamo 48 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT a permanent establishment only in 1786, and since then its constitution has undergone various changes. It is now an independent Board of nominal members, with the usual President, Parliamentary Secretary, and Permanent Secretary. Its powers and duties are very extensive and varied, but here we are concerned only with its relations to local govern- ment, and these are not considerable. It is in- terested mainly in the " trading " undertakings of the various authorities : it grants Provisional Orders (requiring confirmation by Parliament) for the supply of tramways, and to some extent of gas, by local authorities; it issues electric lighting licences; in conjunction with the Local Govern- ment Board it considers proposals for water supplies. It also constitutes (by Provisional Order) and supervises harbour, dock, and pier authorities ; and its approval is required for bye-laws made by local bodies under the Weights and Measures Acts. v. The Board of Agriculture This department was created in 1889, and in form resembles the other Boards which have been described, with the exception that it has no Parlia- mentary Secretary. The councils of counties and of boroughs with more than 10,000 inhabitants are bound to carry out the orders of the Board under the Diseases of Animals and Destructive Insects Acts, and for that purpose appoint special committees. The Board of Agriculture also has powers in regard to public markets. THE CENTRAL AUTHORITIES 49 II. — Methods of Departmental Action The power of general supervision possessed by the various departments, which have been enume- rated above, is exercised in a variety of ways, ranging from simple guidance of local action to the coercion of recalcitrant authorities. The follow- ing list is an attempt to summarise the various methods by which the duties laid by Parliament on the departments are discharged. (a.) The issue of orders and regulations for the application and enforcement of legislative enact- ments. It is often impossible for Parliament to do more than lay down general principles ; in any case it cannot provide for all possible emer- gencies or arrange all the administrative details, and so it leaves these matters (within clearly de- fined statutory limits) to the departments con- cerned. This " sub-legislative " power of the departments is very great ; thus the actual working of the poor law system of England is the outcome of a multitude of orders issued since 1834 by the Poor Law Board and its successor, the Local Government Board, which in 1903-4 issued no less than 852 orders (some general and others applicable only to special districts) on this subject alone. The Board of Education has very wide powers for the detailed application of the Educa- tion Acts. Similarly the Home Secretary may by order declare any trade to be dangerous or injurious to health, and lay down special regulations as to its conduct; and the whole tendency of 50 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT recent factory legislation has been to substitute this system of orders for the settlement of details by enactment. The Board of Agriculture, again, may make whatever orders it deems expedient for the application of the Diseases of Animals Acts. (6.) The discretional grant of powers to local authorities. Parliament has in a number of cases laid down the principle that local authorities may do certain things if they can obtain the approval of a government department. So, for instance, there is a difference betAveen urban and rural sani- tary authorities as to powers, but the Local Govern- ment Board may confer on a rural authority, for the whole or part of its area, any or all of the powers of an urban authority. Practically Pro- visional Orders granted by government departments (as by the Board of Trade under the Tramways Acts, and by the Local Government Board under a number of enactments) may be included under this head ; since, although legislative approval is required for an order to become valid, it is never refused. Thus in 1903-4 the Local Government Board granted 72 orders ; only 7 were opposed in Parliament, and all were approved. (c.) Closely related to this is the approval of action proposed to be taken by local authorities. So "police bye-laws" must be approved by the Home Office, and other bye-laws by the Local Govern- ment Board or Board of Trade ; proposals as to loans, housing schemes, and many other matters require departmental approval in the same way. With this we may connect the duty of departments to report to the Select Committees of Parliament THE CENTRAL AUTHORITIES 51 on all private Bills (whether promoted by local authorities or private persons) dealing with matters in which they are interested ; the Local Govern- ment Board so reported in 1903-4 on 118 private Bills, of which 53 were promoted by local authorities. (d.) Control of officers. This power is greatest in the case of the poor law administration, for there the approval of the Local Government Board is required for all except subordinate appointments by the guardians; whilst, on the other hand, the Board can dismiss the local officials without the consent, and even against the will, of the guardians. The Board's approval is also required for the ap- pointment of all those officials of sanitary authori- ties whose salaries are met partially out of state grants. But except in the case of the poor law the bureaucratic control of all local officials, which is widespread upon the continent, does not exist in England ; the permanent local officials are the servants of the local elected authority, with which alone the central departments can deal. (e.) Inspection. All the government departments which are concerned with local administration have stall's of inspectors. The Homo Office has its in- spectors of constabulary forces; the Local Govern- ment Board has poor law, medical, and engineering inspectors, and auditors (who are really inspectors of local finances); the Board of Education neces- sarily has a very large staff, and the Boards of Trade and Agriculture have inspectors for the various matters with which they deal. The inspector of any department has no power to order or authorise action — all he can do is to 52 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT report ; in some instances his report may be followed by directions from the central department to the local authorities, and in others recommendations alone are possible. In the case of police and educa- tion, the report of the inspectors determines whether or not a local authority shall receive the govern- ment grant. The system of inspection, as will be seen in subsequent chapters, enables the central departments to keep watch over local action, and at the same time puts a considerable amount of expert advice at the service of the various local Boards. The poor law inspectors have the right to attend any meetings of Boards of Guardians, and constantly do so ; the medical inspectors may be present at a meeting of a local sanitary authority (not being a town council) if so directed by the Local Government Board. ■ (/.) Guidance of local administration and issue of information. The Board of Education must be consulted by all local education authorities in regard to their schemes for the promotion of higher educa- tion ; and it publishes a series of special reports on education at home and abroad, which are of great value. The Local Government Board should be, and is to a considerable extent, a guide to the local sanitary authorities in problems of public health, which often require much scientific knowledge and highly skilled investigation for their solution. The " model bye-laws " issued by various departments are much used by the local Boards, and are some- times followed even too readily. All the depart- ments issue annual reports which contain much information as to the work of local authorities, and THE CENTRAL AUTHORITIES 53 the conduct of the various public services which they have been called upon, or have volunteered, to undertake. (g.) Direction of action. Not only is it the duty of the departments to see that local authorities discharge the imperative obligations laid upon them by Parliament, but in some cases they may turn an optional into an imperative duty. So, for example, in the Public Health Acts, there recurs frequently the phrase : " every local authority may, and when required by order of the Local Govern- ment Board shall " do certain things. It should be noted that these powers of direction may in some cases involve an interpretation of the law ; and the departments are often called upon by local authorities to determine the often obscurely ex- pressed intentions of the legislature. But such interpretations, though commonly accepted, are not necessarily binding ; the question can always be raised in a court of law. (h.) But a local authority may either discharge inadequately the duties laid upon it by Parliament (or by the departments acting within their statutory powers), or it may neglect them entirely, and refuse to listen to remonstrance. In the former case, if there is no grant-in-aid determined in amount by the efficiency of the service, the action of the depart- ments is confined to exhortation to improvement. In the case of actual neglect of duty, however, we are brought back to a characteristic feature of English public administration which was noticed in the introductory chapter. The central offices can do little in the way of administrative action. 54 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT It is true that the Local Government Board, if a Board of Guardians resist it in poor law matters, can practically force the permanent local officials to do its will by the threat of dismissal ; but that is clearly not a satisfactory solution, and would not carry the department very far. It is true also that under the Public Health Acts, if a local authority neglects its duty, the Local Government Board may authorise any person or persons to do the work at the cost of the locality, and the Board of Agriculture can do the same in its own special matters ; but this power is now never employed. The Elementary Education Act of 1870 enabled the Board of Education to appoint a School Board in any place where the elected authority neglected its work, but that power was abandoned in the Act of 1902. Since then, however, the Education (De- faulting Authorities) Act, 1904, has authorised the Board to take the place of local education authori- ties in given circumstances, so far as the receipt of government grants and their allocation to individual schools is concerned. But with this exception the only decisive action a department can take is to invoke the aid of the ordinary courts of justice, by application for an order {mandamus) directing the recalcitrant local authority to do the acts hitherto neglected by it. The actual working of this system will be con- sidered later : here it is necessary merely to point out that the courts do not grant the order as a matter of course, but only when convinced that the department is correct in its interpretation of the law. And, further, that once the order has been THE CENTRAL AUTHORITIES 55 issued, the conflict is no longer between the local authority and the department, but between the local authority and the courts, which are concerned solely with the interpretation and enforcement of the law. This at once saves the department from the odium which it might otherwise incur, and at the same time protects the local authority from any arbitrary interpretation of the law by the department, and prevents the growth of bureau- cratic government in England to the stature to which it has attained in continental Europe. There can be no question that some of the central departments, particularly the Local Government Board and the Board of Education, are over- burdened with administrative detail, and that in many respects the work of supervision is over- centralised. The Local Government Act, 1888, (section 10) authorised the Local Government Board to make Provisional Orders transferring to county councils " any such powers, duties, and liabilities of her Majesty's Privy Council, a Secretary of State, the Board of Trade, the Local Government Board, or the Education Department, or any other govern- ment department, as are conferred by or in pur- suance of any statute, and appear to relate to matters arising within the county, and to be of an administrative character ; " and such transference can now be made to a single county council. This ] tower has hitherto not been used at all — a depart- mental committee considered proposals for devolu- tion in 1898, but nothing was done, mainly because of the opposition of the municipalities, who asserted that elective bodies, such as county councils, would 56 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT not be as impartial as a central departmental authority, and that moreover the Local Govern- ment Board possessed more expert knowledge and could therefore give more valuable advice than any county council. Nevertheless the existence of this power of devolution offers an easy means of decen- tralisation, even if the relations of the municipalities to the Local Government Board remain unchanged. The county councils already have some measure of authority over rural district and parish councils ; it would not be very difficult to enlarge this authority in these cases, and to extend it to the urban districts also. The Local Government Board might thereby be relieved of much routine work, and it should also be possible now to mitigate the strictness and minuteness of the central control over the poor law administration. As regards education, now that large and important local authorities have been established to take charge of all elementary schools, it should not be difficult to diminish the amount of detailed work which has hitherto been done by the central office. The departments should be required to deal (so far as possible) only with large questions and important authorities. CHAPTER V PUBLIC ASSISTANCE The term " public assistance " used upon the conti- nent is in many ways preferable to the English term "poor relief," since it enables us to include under one head provision for the destitute, and help for defectives, sick, and others to whom it is desirable that help should be given, but who may not be included amongst those who are commonly called " the poor." This public assistance in England is divided between two sets of authorities, the councils of counties and of certain municipal boroughs and the Boards of Guardians — the latter being much the more important. A. County and Municipal Councils All county councils, and the councils of all county boroughs and twenty-seven other quarter sessions boroughs, are required to provide adequate accom- modation for pauper lunatics, and, if they think fit, for lunatics who are not paupers. For this purpose they may act separately, or two or more may com- bine ; they may provide asylums themselves or may contract with the managers of any asylum for the reception of patients chargeable to the local autho- rity. Where a local authority, or group of authori- se 58 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT ties, provides an asylum, it is bound to appoint a " visiting committee," which has considerable inde- pendence of action. A contribution towards the cost of each lunatic is paid by the Poor Law Union to which he is chargeable. The painfully rapid in- crease of lunacy, especially in the great cities, is one of the most serious phenomena of this generation, and has brought a considerable strain upon local administrators, who have found it difficult to keep pace with the demand for asylum accommodation. On the 1st of January 1885 (the first year in which criminal lunatics were excluded from the returns) the number of lunatics relieved was 71,370 ; by the beginning of 1894 it was 82,875 ; and this figure had increased by 1904 to 106,683. Another duty which the county councils, or the councils of municipal boroughs with 10,000 inhabi- tants, may take upon themselves is the provision or assistance of reformatory and industrial schools. B. The Boards of Guardians The poor law administration is the department of English local government which is most strictly controlled both by legislative enactment and the orders of a central authority. The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 and subsequent Amending Acts have been described as "the least permissive in character " of all the local government statutes ; and on the foundations which they laid an elaborate structure has been built, not by the initiative or enterprise of the local authorities, but entirely by the direction and on the plans of the Poor Law PUBLIC ASSISTANCE 59 Commissioners appointed to work out the details of the Act of 1834, and by their successors, the Poor Law Board and the present Local Government Board. The statute of 1601, which is the basis of our poor' law system, made the parish the unit for relief of every kind ; but the ordinary parish was far too small to be satisfactory for administrative purposes, and the Act of 1831 authorised the combination of parishes for the maintenance of the poor. A " poor law union " may indeed still be a single parish, but, as its name implies, it is commonly a group of parishes (the average number being 22) : there are 657 unions in all, including the 10 "contributory (out-relief) unions" and the Scilly Isles, and they differ greatly in area and population. The boun- daries of the unions originally had no regard what- ever to the boundaries of areas for other purposes (e.g. municipal boroughs, sanitary districts, or even counties), and they are still largely independent of them — a fact which introduces a quite unnecessary element of confusion into the local government organisation. The authority in each union is the Board of Guardians, holding office for three years. Poor law administration is the only general matter of local administration for which the ad hoc prin- ciple is still maintained in law ; but in practice this lias been modified greatly by the fact that separate stions of guardians take place only in urban unions or the urban portions of mixed unions. Elsewhere the persons elected as rural district councillors are ipso facto guardians for their elec- toral areas ; so that, in the not very frequent case 60 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT where a poor law union and a rural district are conterminous, the two authorities are identical in composition, though distinct in law and working. Women are eligible both as district councillors and guardians, and as the work of the poor law authori- ties affords especial opportunities for them, many have been elected and do valuable service. Each Board of Guardians may, if it chooses, elect a chair- man and vice-chairman from outside, and it may also co-opt two other persons. The guardians (as was noticed in a previous chapter) have some duties not directly connected with poor law administration ; but their main task is the giving of relief. This is of two kinds — out- door and indoor. Outdoor relief consists of (a)* gifts in money; (b) gifts in kind; (c) provision of work for the able-bodied ; (d) apprenticeship ; (e) medical assistance ; (/) burial. Indoor relief is given by means of (a) the casual ward; (6) the workhouse; (c) the infirmary; (d) the lunatic asylum, maintained as we have seen by another authority ; (e) the schools. The guardians have the right and duty of determining in each in- dividual case the nature and amount of relief to be given — if it shall be indoor or outdoor ; but that may almost be described as the extreme limits of their independence. In all that relates to the conduct of business, the provision and minute management of workhouses, infirmaries, and schools, the dietary of paupers (as to both the nature and quantity of each meal) every possible matter is regulated by the Local Government Board as the central poor law authority. This regulative power PUBLIC ASSISTANCE 61 is secured first by the right to issue orders, of which some are general, and apply to all Boards of Guardians, and others special or applicable only to the Board or Boards specified in the order ; some hundreds of such orders are issued every year. The central department is kept informed of the action of the authorities by its poor law inspectors, each of whom has charge of a district, in which he can attend the meetings of the guardians, and visit the workhouses and other institutions, as often as he pleases. Further, the officials of each union — the clerk, poor law medical officer, relieving officers, workhouse officers — are appointed and paid by the guardians ; but the terms of appointment, the ap- pointments themselves and dismissals must receive the sanction of the Local Government Board, which, on the other hand, can dismiss any official without the consent of the guardians. Finally, there is the audit of accounts, and the powers connected therewith. The main purpose of this regulative power and extreme centralisation, as established in 1834, was to secure a uniform standard, economy, and order after the confusion, inefficiency, waste, and de- moralising influence of the old poor law adminis- tration. That object was completely attained; no greater revolution can well be imagined than the change wrought by the Act of 183-i, and the work of the Poor Law Commissioners. But it is worthy of consideration if the system of centralisation then established has not lasted long enough : and with- out relaxation of the general principles of poor relief hitherto adopted, and with the retention of the inspectoral authority of the Local Government 62 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT Board, it would yet be possible to give greater flexibility to the system by the abolition of the minute and detailed control which, by reducing the independence of the guardians to a minimum, is undoubtedly largely the cause of the general lack of interest in the Boards of Guardians and their work. This does not mean that the Boards are necessarily of inferior quality ; but the feeling that there is little scope for initiative and responsibility (except as re- gards the choice between indoor and outdoor relief — though this is of great importance) and that the officers are not subordinate to, but largely indepen- dent of, the elected members, does tend to discourage candidature, and to promote popular indifference. It may be that the time has come to abolish the ad hoc bodies entirely, and to transfer the work to the town councils for the municipal areas, and elsewhere to the county and district councils. In the municipal boroughs there is no reason why the town councils should not have charge of the whole of public assistance, working through special committees — as the German town councils do with great success. In the counties the county councils might undertake the provision of the institutions for indoor relief, which would thereby be much larger than at present (itself an administrative ad- vantage), and leave outdoor relief to the district councils under their supervision and control. The Methods of Public Assistance It has already been remarked that the guardians have the very important duty of deciding in each PUBLIC ASSISTANCE 63 case between indoor and outdoor relief; and the real problem always under discussion is the extent to which these two forms should be used for the able- bodied. The Outdoor Prohibitory Relief Order of 1844 directed that " every able-bodied person .... requiring relief .... shall be relieved only in the workhouse of the union ; " but to this there was the great exception that out-relief was permitted for the able-bodied " in all those cases of distress which are of most frequent occurrence, such as sickness, accident, bodily or mental infirmity in themselves and in their families," and further cases, such as various periods of widowhood. The net result of this and other provisions is that out- relief may be given to persons over sixty years of age, even if still able-bodied, and also to per- sons under sixty, if disabled by any causes such as those indicated. The following table gives the mean number of ordinarily able-bodied adults in receipt of the two forms of relief in the last five years : — Year ended Lady Day. Indoor Relief. Ratio per 1000 of Population. Outdoor Relief. Ratio per 1U00 of Population. 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 3 1,387 33,580 35,095 37,5G1 39,991 1-1 10 11 1-1 1-2 59,268 57,553 59,580 61,393 62,5(i:) 1-9 1-8 1-8 1-9 1-9 Thus the greater number of able-bodied are re- lieved outside the workhouse, but the preponderance is far less than it used to be. The following table 64 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT shows the average numbers for three quinquennial periods : — Period. Average Number Receiving In- relief. Average Number Receiving Out- relief. 1880-4 1890-4 1900-4 21,893 26,971 36,113 81,411 69,105 60,062 In relation to population there has been a steady decrease of able-bodied paupers from 4-6 per 1000 in 1879-80 to 31 in 1903-4 (a figure somewhat higher than in the four preceding years). We may now take in order the various ways in which relief is given. In out-relief, weekly allow- ances in money or in kind may be made by the guardians, but they may not pay rent, redeem tools, or buy clothes (except in special cases), and they may not give relief to able-bodied persons, except under the circumstances already noted. But they may, by special permission, provide for the able-bodied under the regulation that " every able-bodied person, if relieved out of the workhouses, shall be set to work by the guardians and be kept employed under their direction and superintendence so long as he continues to receive relief." This might be used, as was probably intended, to meet periods of trade depression and non-employment, but the difficulty of finding satisfactory work has been so considerable that few Boards of Guardians make use of their powers in this matter; it is obviously much easier for the municipal and district councils to provide PUBLIC ASSISTANCE 65 employment. Boards of Guardians may also pay premiums for children to be bound as apprentices. Another form of out-relief which is very import- ant is medical assistance ; each Poor Law Union has one or more medical officers whose duty it is "to attend duly and punctually upon all poor persons requiring medical attendance, and supply the re- quisite medicines whenever it may be required by an order of the -guardians, or of a relieving officer, or of an overseer." The receipt of medical assistance (in or out of the infirmary) does not disfranchise; all other forms of relief do involve the loss of the suffrage. Finally, there is burial " by the parish." The crudest form of in-relief is the casual ward, which gives a night's shelter to vagrants in return for a compulsory amount of work. But the most important is that furnished by the workhouse, though the title has come to be somewhat of a misnomer, since the number of able-bodied male inmates is very small, the great majority of the workhouse population being the disabled, either by age or infirmity, and women and children. In theory, there should be a division of inmates into various classes {e.g. aged and infirm, able-bodied, married persons, children, &c), but this is obviously possible only in the large unions, the ordinary work- house of a country union being too small — for this purpose the larger areas already suggested are de- sirable. And so far it has also proved impracticable to distinguish between the deserving and unde- serving poor. The only satisfactory attempt, at special treatment (apart from the children) has been in the provision of special comfort for the E 66 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT aged. For the sick poor there is the infirmary, practically a parish hospital — not always in a satis- factory condition, though there has been a consider- able improvement in this respect in recent years ; and for the mentally afflicted there is the asylum, maintained by the county or borough authorities with contributions from the Boards of Guardians. Finally, much valuable work is done in the rescue of children by the provision of poor law schools. There is the school in the workhouse itself, which is objectionable because it keeps the children in the atmosphere of pauperism ; there are the large " barrack schools," maintained sometimes by a com- bination of unions ; there is the boarding-out system — an arrangement which can work well only if great care is taken in the selection of the homes, and con- stant inspection secured ; and finally there are the " cottage homes," where a small village of cottages is built around a schoolhouse and workshops, and in each cottage a number of children are placed under the care of a workman and his wife. Of all these plans the last is probably the most satisfactory in its results ; but it is also much the most costly. The work of enquiry into the circumstances of the applicants for relief is supposed to be done by the guardians themselves; actually they are guided mainly by the reports of their professional agents, the relieving officers, whose duty it is to receive " all applications for relief . . . and to forthwith examine into the circumstances of every case by visiting the house of the applicant, and by making all necessary enquiries, &c, and report the result of such enquiries in the prescribed form at the next meeting." The PUBLIC ASSISTANCE 67 relieving officers may give immediate aid, if they think necessary; but the definite decision is made by the guardians themselves, who commonly require the applicant to appear before them. Outdoor relief is distributed by the relieving officers. This is one of the weakest parts of the system : the relieving officers are often overworked, and in any case pro- fessional enquiry into applications for relief is always apt to become routine and unsympathetic. Little volunteer help has hitherto been placed at the dis- posal of the guardians ; the local committees of the Charity Organisation Society have latterly done something to remedy the deficiency, but much more aid of this kind is required. The great success of what is known as the Elberfeld system (but which is common throughout Germany) has been due to the fact that the local authorities for Public Assist- ance have enlisted the services of large numbers of persons interested in social work, who under the carefully maintained control of the authorities are the agents for enquiry into applications and for the distribution of relief. There seems no adequate reason why such an arrangement should not be adopted in England as part of a re-organisation, which must soon be undertaken, of our system of poor relief. The Cost of Poor Relief The cost of the- relief of the poor and of the other duties laid upon the guardians is borne in each union by a common fund, to which the various component parishes contribute in proportion to their 68 ENGLI rateable value; the only items connected in any way with poor relief which are still chargeable to separate parishes are the salaries of assistant over- seers and rate collectors. The cost of asylums (less a contribution for each inmate from the union to which he is chargeable) is borne in each asylum area by the county or borough rate. In London there are thirty unions with very varying social conditions ; and in order to remedy to some extent the inequalities of burden the Metropolitan Common Poor Fund was established, out of which there is provided the cost of district asylums for sick and insane, dispensaries, vaccination, and fivepence a day for each indoor pauper. The poor rate gene- rally is relieved by state grants (through the county councils) from the Exchequer Contribution Account towards the salaries of officers of unions and of district schools, and four shillings for each pauper lunatic. It should be added that the guardians may recover, if possible, the whole or part of the expenditure on relief to any person from that person's husband, wife (if she has separate property), parents, grandparents, children, or grand- children, all of whom are liable for the maintenance of the person relieved. The total number of persons in receipt of relief on the 1st January 1904 was 869,128, divided as follows (573 persons are counted twice over in the following figures) : — Ordinary Paupers, Men . . . 197,278 „ „ Women . . 329,846 „ „ Children under 16 222,690 PUBLIC ASSISTANCE 69 Insane, Men • . 46,581 ,, Women . I . 55,838 „ Children under 1 6 . , 1,834 Vagrants .... • . 15,634 Of the total number of 869,128 paupers 136,413, or 15*6 per cent., were in the metropolis. The next table gives the total expenditure by the Boards of Guardians on poor relief for the year 1902-3, and the way in which it was met : — Expenditure. ■ - i Receipts. In-maintenance . £2,920,556 Poor rates . . . £9,658,940 Out-maintenance . 2,932,745 County grants of Lunatics .... 2,196,318 various kinds Salaries, super- (including annuation, &c. . 2,259,276 £744,256 for Repayment of loans maintenance of and interest . . 1,005,565 lunatics) . . . 2,039,397 Other expenses From relatives . . 393,291 connected with Grant from Ex- poor relief . . £ 1,533,863 chequer (Agri- cultural rates). 434,078 Other sources . . 322,627 12,848,323 £12,848,334 Whilst the proportion of paupers of all kinds to population has been steadily falling (it was 28*8 per 1000 at the commencement of 1884, 26'5 in L894, and 25*1 in 1904), the cost of pauperism has been rapidly rising — largely because of the greater Btandard of comfort adopted for indoor relief and the necessity of increasing provision for lunatics. The following table gives the cost per head of all classes of paupers, and the cost per head of outdoor 70 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT paupers — the latter item being exclusive of the remuneration of poor-law officers : — Year ended at Lady Day. Cost per Pauper of all kinds. Cost of Out-relief per Pauper so Relieved. 1871 1881 1891 1901 1902 1903 £7 12 Of 10 4 10* 11 7 Oj 14 15 74 15 6 Oj 15 12 3§ £4 6 QJ 4 13 11 4 12 2f 5 10 l| 5 12 111 5 14 10$ In England and Wales (exclusive of London) the cost per pauper in the year ending at Lady Day, 1903, was £13, 6s. 5|d. ; in London it was £28, Os. lOd. Outdoor relief (exclusive of salaries) cost £5, 14s. 5d. per head outside London, and £5, 19s. lOfd. per head in the metropolis. The cost of poor relief per head of population varies greatly ; in 1903 it was highest in London, with 15s. 8^d. per head ; then came Herefordshire with 9s. 8|d. and Norfolk with 9s. 2|d., whilst at the other end of the list were Cumberland and Northumberland with 4s. 9|d. and 4s. 8£d. respectively. The average for the whole of England and Wales was 7s. 9|d., as compared with 6s. 3£d. in 1893, 6s. 4£d. in 1883, and 6s. 8d. in 1873. CHAPTER VI EDUCATION The creation of a national system of education began in 1833, when the first reformed House of Commons voted £20,000 to be used "for the pur- poses of education." At that time the greater part of the elementary schools of England and Wales which were of any value were maintained by two associations — the National Society, which was devoted to the interests of the Established Church, and the British and Foreign School Society, which was almost entirely Nonconformist. The Treasury re- cognised these two bodies, and followed their advice in the distribution of the grant, which was used for the building of schools, on condition that half the cost was met by voluntary subscription. From that time onward much attention was given to the subject, and in 1839 the first really decisive step was taken by an Order in Council which established a special committee of the Privy Council, under the Lord President, to administer the grants; all schools in receipt of public money were to be sub- ject to inspection by the new authority. Year by year after that date the grants for elementary education were increased, and were accompanied by grants to institutions founded by private societies (chietly denominational) for the training of teachers; 71 72 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT the pupil teacher, " Queen's scholarships," and certi- fication systems were founded ; the Science and Art Department developed ; and in 1856 the central authority was re-organised, and a Vice-President appointed, who was intended to be the real Minister of Education. But in spite of all this, progress was very slow ; a Royal Commission reported in 1861 that only about one-seventeenth of the children of the poor were receiving an education which could be deemed satisfactory, even with the low standard of that time. The recommendations of this Com- mission are interesting in view of recent legisla- tion; it proposed the institution of county and municipal Boards, with power to levy rates. But for nine years nothing was done ; and then came the great Elementary Education Act of 1870. That Act directed that " there shall be provided for every school district a sufficient amount of accommodation in public elementary schools for all the children resident in that district, for whose elementary education efficient and suitable provision is not otherwise made." Where such provision was not made by voluntary effort a representative " local authority was to be set up to make good the deficiency, and with power to levy a rate for that purpose ; School Boards might be established also in other districts, if the schools already provided were made over to them. In the schools so main- tained by local authorities no formulary or creed distinctive of any particular denomination was per- mitted to be taught. At first attendance at school was compulsory only in districts where the School Boards chose to make bye-laws to that effect, but by EDUCATION 73 legislation in 1876 and 1880 the compulsion was made universal, and in districts where no School Board existed the Town Councils of municipalities and elsewhere the Boards of Guardians were required to appoint committees to enforce the Acts. As an almost necessary consequence of this compulsory atten- dance there came the abolition of school fees in 1891. Meanwhile, state action in the matter of secondary and technical education had slowly developed. The Science and Art Department was doing good work in the encouragement of the teaching of those subjects ; the Royal College of Science had been founded in 1851 ; and in 1889 the Technical Instruc- tion Act authorised the council of any county or borough, or any urban sanitary authority, to supply or aid the supply of technical or manual instruction, and to levy a small rate for that purpose. In the fol- lowing year the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act made over to the local authorities a large annual sum (the " whisky money ") from the proceeds of certain duties, with a general recommendation that the money should be used for technical education — a term which in subsequent years received a very wide interpretation. For Wales (which, in regard to elementary education, is in the same position as England) the Intermediate Education Act, 1889, authorised the councils of counties and county boroughs to contribute to secondary (as distinct from merely technical) education. Finally, all the state did for tertiary education, apart from its great science schools at South Kensington, was to contribute annu- ally, from 1889 onward, towards a number of institu- 74 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT tions recognised as giving education of a university type, but the total amount so voted each year for England and Wales was only about £40,000 up to 1902. Finally, it should be added that the committee of the Privy Council was turned into a Board of Education, with an independent President, in 1899, and its authority was extended in various ways (in the matter of educational endowments it took over some of the powers of the Charity Commissioners). By 1902 the necessity for reform had become evident. The change made by the legislation of that year (and its extension to London in 1903) is so recent that it is not possible to describe the actual working of the new machine^. All that can be done here is to give an account of the condition of national education in England and Wales in 1902, and then an outline of the new organisation. Condition of National Education in 1902 In 1902 there were 2564 School Boards, with 5878 schools; and there were also 14,409 "voluntary" schools, i.e. schools founded by voluntary (mainly denominational) effort, and not subject to the control of locally elected bodies. But in spite of this great difference in the number of schools, the scholars were nearly equally divided, there being 3,074,149 in the voluntary schools, and 2,778,127 in the Board schools, which were chiefly in the towns and popu- lous districts and were therefore usually much larger than the voluntary schools. The School Boards EDUCATION 75 spent in the financial year 1902-3 £11,186,697 out of ordinary revenue, and £2,312,051 out of loans; of their ordinary revenue about 59*5 per cent, was derived from local rates, and about 36-5 per cent, from Exchequer grants. In the early years after 1870 the friends of the denominational schools had made great efforts to provide schools, but as the standards of school curricula and equipment rose voluntary contributions towards the maintenance of these schools had proved inadequate, and the state had been forced to make special grants to them, until in 1902 rather more than 80 per cent, of their total income was derived from government moneys, although they were still managed (subject to the Board of Education) only by the unrepresentative denominational managers. Many of the small School Boards were not very efficient, and some of the volun- tary schools were extremely good ; but nevertheless the general level of the voluntary schools, mainly owing to lack of funds, was below that of the Board schools. With the consent of the Board of Education, the School Boards had widened greatly the sphere of their activity. In the evening continuation schools, they gave instruction to adults and others in sub- jects of elementary education and in more ad- vanced studies; in higher grade day schools, they were teaching subjects which wore really part of secondary education, and they maintained centres for the special instruction of pupil teachers. But though this had .-ill developed with the approval and encouragement of a government department it was discovered in 1900 and 1902 to be abso- 76 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT lutely illegal, since instruction to adults, the teach- ing in pupil teacher centres, and some of the subjects in the evening continuation and higher grade schools, were held by the courts to be outside the term "elementary education." Meanwhile, much of the advanced work of the School Boards had overlapped the technical in- struction given by the county and municipal authorities. Only in Wales and Monmouth had the local (county and county borough) authorities power to contribute to secondary education, in the broadest meaning of the term, and in 1901 they maintained or contributed to ninety-five secondary schools. In England, however, the term " technical education" had been given a very wide interpre- tation, and there were very few subjects which could not in some way be brought within it ; most of the authorities under the Technical Instruction Acts had taken the matter up vigorously, and very much valuable work had been done. The total amount spent by them on technical and intermediate edu- cation in 1902-3 was £1,455,422. The Department of Science and Art had also contributed powerfully to the development of the teaching of those subjects by grants to institutions subject to inspection. As regards the training of teachers, the action of the state had been confined to the recogni- tion, financial assistance, and inspection of training- colleges for elementary teachers, founded by private or university enterprise, and these were altogether inadequate in number. In 1902, 5846 candidates qualified for admission to these institutions, but there were vacancies only for 2800. For the train- EDUCATION 77 ing of secondary teachers the state naturally, since it did nothing for secondary schools, made no provision whatever. So that by 1902 more than half the children in public elementary schools in England and Wales were in the "voluntary schools," where they re- ceived an education inferior to that given in the Board schools. Four-fifths of the income of the voluntary schools was derived from the national exchequer, but they were nevertheless not subject to any local representative authority, and in them religious teaching of a denominational character was given. There were 7478 districts with only a single school each, and though the " conscience clause" enabled parents to withdraw their children from the religious instruction of which they dis- approved, that course is not always easy or desir- able. For secondary education (so far as state action was concerned) there was no general system ; the local authorities were legally powerless except for technical subjects; there was no co-ordination of elementary with advanced education, or of the work of the technical education authorities with that of the evening continuation and higher grade schools, up to 1900. Finally, the local authorities were unable to render any assistance to tertiary education, except to such parts of it as could be brought within the term " technical " ; there was no means of co-ordinating secondary with tertiary education, apart from such influence as might be exercised indirectly by the universities. The exist- ing ureas for education purposes were far too small for anything to be done, even hud the authorities 78 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT the power, for the building up of a coherent system which should embrace all three grades of education. As to teaching, the state imposed some minimum qualifications for teachers in inspected elementary- schools, but scarcely half the teachers were ade- quately trained, since no obligation rested upon anybody to provide institutions for that purpose. The New System The basis of the Act of 1902 is the adoption of the plan of county and municipal education areas, which had been recommended in 1861, and the abandonment of the ad hoc system, which even in 1870 had not at first been intended to apply to the great towns. For elementary education the authorities now are the councils of all counties and county boroughs, of municipal boroughs with 10,000 inhabitants, and of urban districts with 20,000 in- habitants. The same authorities, and the councils of all other municipal boroughs, and urban districts (whatever their size), may supply or aid the supply of " higher education " ; this is denned simply as mean- ing " education other than elementary," and so the disability of local authorities from contributing to- wards secondary (as distinct from technical) and tertiary education is removed — -there is in fact no restriction whatsoever. Any municipal borough or urban district can hand over any powers of which it may be possessed to the local county council. Every authority must appoint a " local education committee " (or committees), to consist partly of coun- cillors and partly of co-opted persons, representative EDUCATION 79 of educational bodies, or interested in education, amongst whom women must be included ; except in cases of emergency no authority may come to a decision on any educational matter except after receiving a report from this committee ; whilst, on the other hand, a council can, if it think fit, hand over to its education committee any or all of its powers under the Act of 1902, and in that case the com- mittee can act as if it were the council, except as to levying a rate or raising a loan. All the old board schools are transferred to the new authorities, and further, they are to have control of secular education, including equipment and staffing, in the voluntary schools; the two groups are to be known hence- forward as " provided " and " non-provided " schools. In the case of a provided school there are managers, of whom two-thirds are appointed by the education authority, and one-third by the local authority if it is not itself the education authority ; if it is, then it appoints all the managers. For non-provided schools the managers are appointed as to two-thirds by the trustees or the old foundation managers, and as to one-third, half by the local education authority and half by the immediate local authority — e.g. in rural areas the parish councils. The education authority has absolute control of provided schools ; in the others the managers are bound to carry out its instructions in all that relates to secular edu- cation; it has power to inspect, and its approval is required for the appointment and dismissal of teachers, but such approval cannot be withheld merely on religious grounds. In provided schools no religious creed or formulary distinctive of any 80 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT denomination may be taught ; in non - provided schools religious instruction may be given in accord- ance with the trust deeds, but parents may with- draw their children from such instruction. The only financial responsibility resting on the managers of non-provided schools is the supply of buildings ; if these are not sufficient at any time, and the managers cannot extend them, the local education authority may either make the extension, and thereby turn the non-provided into a provided school, or it may establish a new school. For higher education the authorities may do whatever they choose ; they may establish institutions of their own, either jointly or separately, or they may con- tribute to institutions already in existence, for any kind of secondary and technical education (includ- ing evening schools), for the training of teachers, and for the promotion of education of a university type. The only restriction is the limitation of the rate for higher education to twopence in the pound (except with the approval of the Local Government Board) in county and county boroughs, and to one penny in the pound in non-county boroughs and urban districts. It is too soon yet to judge of the use which will be made of all these powers, but there are abundant signs that the new authorities are taking up their work with energy and with a real desire to promote a sound system of national education. What, then, has been gained by the Act ? There are the larger areas; over 2500 school boards and 800 school attendance committees have been replaced by 328 education authorities — councils of 62 ad- EDUCATION 81 ministrative counties.. 69 county boroughs, 138 muni- cipal boroughs, 58 urban districts, and of the Isles of Scilly. There is the possibility of raising the standard of all primary schools to an equality ; the beginnings of popular control over all schools in receipt of public money ; the opportunity for a state system of secondary education, in the fullest sense of the term, and for greater state participation in university education; the possibility of substantial improvements in the training of teachers, and the general co-ordination of the three grades of educa- tion. Much will depend upon the action of the universities, and the extent to which they can make their influence felt ; and for this the omens are favour- able, since local authorities are contributing to the new universities, and these in turn are represented upon the education committees, are undertaking the training of teachers, and are proposing to in- fluence secondary schools by inspection (on behalf of the Board of Education) where desired, and by the institution of "leaving examinations" with cer- tificates which admit to the universities without further examination. In this way, even if no further changes of organisation are made, we may hope that the time will come when each university, whilst open to students from all parts, will yet have its own special area in which it will be the guiding force in all branches of education and the crown of the whole system. This is what is aimed at, and largely at- tained, by the " regional " universities of France ; but in England and Wales the same result could probably be secured without so inelastic an organi- sation as prevails in that country. 82 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT The Act of 1902, in spite of the many reforms which it has made, has been subject to the severest criticism. The abolition of the school boards has been opposed on the ground that education is so important that it should be given to an authority which could devote its whole time to the matter, and be composed of persons specially interested and qualified. No one will deny the great value of the work done by the school boards of the large towns ; but the average rural school board was not very effective, and against the disadvantages of the aboli- tion must be set the advantages of larger areas, greater public interest (since experience seems to show conclusively that the ordinary elector is inter- ested least in ad hoc authorities), the strengthen- ing of county and municipal councils, and the concentration of financial responsibility. The ob- jection that the new Act establishes the principle of rate-aid without representation is scarcely valid, since it at least inaugurates popular control over all schools. The further objection that it stereotypes the system under which public money is given to denominational schools, and that teachers not of the Established Church are excluded from the chief posts in the great majority of the public schools, is much more serious, since it has aroused an amount of opposition which must hamper the administration of the Act. But the validity of the objection, and the possible remedies, are questions too controversial to be discussed here. The whole of elementary education, and of science and art instruction, in schools and institutions in receipt of public money, is controlled by the Board EDUCATION 83 of Education. It prepares the code of regulations for elementary schools, inspects them, and allots the parliamentary grants ; it lays down regulations as to the number, qualifications, and training of teachers, examines, certifies, and registers them, and inspects the training colleges which are aided by grants ; it decides as to the necessity of new schools. If an authority fails to fulfil any of its duties under the Elementary Education Acts, the Board may proceed against it by application for the writ of mandamus. It must be consulted by any authority which pre- pares a scheme for the promotion of higher educa- tion ; and its approval is required for all courses of instruction in science and art for which central grants are claimed. Finally, it may inspect secondary schools desiring to be so inspected ; the number of these is increasing rapidly, and reached 135 in the year 1903. The Cost of Education The total amount to be voted by Parliament for education of all kinds in the United Kingdom in the year 1905-6 is £16,328,947, which is about thirteen times as much as was voted in 1870, and about £6,000,000 more than in 1895-6. The grants for elementary and science and art education, and the administrative expenses of the Board of Edu- cation in England and Wales, rose from about £7,500,000 in 1895-6 to £12,650,000 ten years later. The average grant per day scholar (on average attendance) in the elementary schools was 10s. If d. in 1871, and by 1903-4 it had risen to 20s. 5£d. it is not 84 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT possible to give exact figures of the total amount spent on elementary education, since no complete statistics are published ; but the expenditure of the school boards in 1902-3 was 13| million pounds, and for the voluntary schools it could not have been less than 8 millions, which, with the addition of the administrative expenses of the Board of Education, gives a total of at least 22 million pounds, almost entirely from (public central and local) funds for elementary education alone. Adding to that the science and art and university college grants, and the money spent by local authorities on technical edu- cation, we get to nearly 26 millions, and there cannot be the slightest doubt that this figure will be very much increased by the working of the Act of 1902, by the efforts of the new local education authorities to bring all the elementary schools to a level, to provide and stimulate (by increased salaries) the supply of teachers, and to promote secondary and tertiary education. CHAPTER VII PUBLIC HEALTH Public attention was first seriously drawn to the necessity of measures for promoting and safeguard- ing the health of the community by the letter on preventable disease as a cause of poverty, which the Poor Law Commissioners addressed in 1838 to the Home Secretary. The next ten years were occupied with parliamentary and other enquiries, and an awakening of public interest in the matter (stimu- lated by cholera epidemics) ; and then the Public Health Act of 1848 inaugurated a series of experi- ments by erecting a Central Board of Health, with power to establish local boards in districts which desired them or which had a high death-rate. But the new central authority was from the first unsatis- factory and unpopular — partly because of defects of organisation and inadequate powers, and partly be- cause its methods were not well advised in view of the reaction against central control. The Board was effective only for live years; after that it languished until its abolition in 1858. Subsequent action by the legislature up to 1870 failed to produce a satis- factory code of sanitary law, partly because of the disinclination of the legislature to couch its enact- ments in the imperative mood ; there was only 86 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT insufficient central guidance and supervision, and much confusion of authorities. Then, as the result of the labours of a Royal Commission in the years 1869-1871, there came reform, first by the establishment of the Local Government Board in 1871 and the transference to it of the powers and duties exercised by various departments (particularly the Privy Council) in matters of public health. Next, in 1872 the country was divided into urban and rural sanitary districts ; in the former the town councils of municipal boroughs, and elsewhere the improvement commissioners esta- blished under local Acts, or local boards of health specially elected, were to be the authorities ; in the rural districts the sanitary administration was en- trusted to the guardians of the poor. Three years later the great Public Health Act of 1875 gave England and Wales a sanitary code by the consolida- tion, amendment, and extension of the previous sanitary enactments ; to a large extent the new Act was compulsory on all authorities, and much more, though generally optional, was to be compulsory if the Local Government Board so decided. Since 1875 the sanitary laws have been extended almost every year ; the constant recognition of new needs has greatly increased the work, and thereby the import- ance, of the authorities concerned. These, as now constituted, are the creations of the Local Govern- ment Acts of 1888 and 1894 ; and are, for the county generally, the county councils, urban district councils, and rural district councils ; and for the metropolis, the London County Council, the Metropolitan Asylums Board, and the metropolitan borough councils. The PUBLIC HEALTH ' 87 principal sanitary enactments at present in force are the Public Health Act, 1875, the Public Health (Amendment) Act, 1890, the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, and its amending Acts of 1900 and 1903, and the Public Health (London) Act, 1891 ; but there are many others of various degrees of importance. The Authorities and their Powers A. The County Councils. — The council of each ad- ministrative county is charged with the surveillance of the sanitary administration within its area (except in municipal boroughs), and for that purpose a medical officer is usually appointed to watch the work done by the various authorities and report thereon to his council. On his report it may make representations to the Local Government Board as to the action of any local sanitary authority, or under section 16 of the Act of 1894, on the complaint of a parish council that a rural district council is neglect- ing its duty in regard to sewerage, or water supply, or other matters under the Public Health Acts, the county council may hold an enquiry, and then either take over the duties itself, or authorise some person or persons to do the work, at the expense of the defaulting authority. As a matter of fact, it usually makes representations to the authority concerned, and if they fail it invokes the aid of the Local Government Board. This surveillance, exercised chiefly through the medical officer, is of great importance, for the central department could not adequately watch over the numerous district councils. The medical officers of the counties are usually men of very considerable 88 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT qualifications and ability, and their annual reports are in many cases documents not merely of interest for the study of sanitary administration, but of im- portance as contributions to scientific knowledge. There are a few other duties of county councils. They may, and if required must, appoint public analysts under the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, and must appoint agricultural analysts under the Fertilisers and Feeding Stuffs Acts, 1893; they must form committees to carry out the directions of the Board of Agriculture in regard to the diseases of animals, and they may establish isolation hospitals under an Act of 1893. B. The Councils of Sanitary Districts. — From the point of view of sanitary legislation, the country is divided into urban and rural sanitary districts — the former including all municipal boroughs and the urban districts established in 1894, and the latter being the rural districts. The authorities are then town councils, urban district councils, and rural district councils. The powers of parish councils are confined to the making of representations as to the sanitary condition of their parishes to the proper authorities, the removal of petty nuisances, the utilisa- tion of existing sources of water supply, the provision of recreation grounds and cemeteries, and lighting. It will be convenient to summarise the powers of the authorities first, and then to examine them in detail. There are some which are common to the authorities of both groups of districts, whilst naturally there are others which normally are needed for urban areas only. But the Local Govern- ment Board may give a rural district council any PUBLIC HEALTH 89 or all of the powers of an urban district council if it think fit, and this is constantly done — in 168 cases in the year 1903-4. It should also be added that whilst many of the powers and duties to be mentioned are always compulsory, others are op- tional unless the Local Government Board think proper to direct authorities to take them up. Generally, then, urban and rural sanitary author- ities alike have powers and duties in regard to — (1) Sewerage and drainage. (2) Provision of water supply. (3) Inspection and prevention of nuisances. (4) Inspection and regulation of lodging-houses and cellar dwellings. (5) Registration and inspection of workshops and domestic factories, including bakehouses and laundries. (f>) Collection and removal of house refuse. (7) Provision of hospitals, mortuaries, cemeteries and crematoria. (8) Regulations in regard to infectious diseases. ('.•) Inspection of food. (10) Inspection of dairies. (1 1) Regulations as to the conduct of offensive trades. (12) Provision of houses for the working classes. ( 1 ."')) Provision of open spaces. (14) Regulation of buildings. (15) Lighting. Urban sanitary authorities have powers also in regard to — (16) Cleansing and scavenging of streets (this is very commonly given to rural authorities also). H7) Provision of baths and washhousi (IS) Town improvements. 00 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT The councils of the more important municipal boroughs are also authorities in respect of — (19) Sale of food and drugs — appointment of analysts. (20) Diseases of animals. (21) Fertilisers and feeding stuffs — appointment of agricultural analysts. C. The Sanitary Authorities in London. — The London County Council is the authority for the general supervision of the sanitary work of the metropolitan borough councils, and for the Acts re- lating to diseases of animals, slaughter-houses, and common lodging-houses. It is responsible for the main drainage system; it carries out all important street improvements ; it is the principal authority under the Housing Acts; it may make bye-laws applicable to the whole of London for the regulation of offensive trades, and for the removal and pre- vention of various nuisances ; and it may provide parks and open spaces. Neither it nor the borough councils have anything to do with the water supply, except that they appoint representatives on the Metropolitan Water Board. For all other matters, cleaning and lighting of streets, sanitary inspection, small housing schemes, &c, the metropolitan borough councils are the authorities. The Corporation of the City has charge of the sanitary administration of the port of London ; and hospitals for infectious diseases are provided by the Metropolitan Asylums Board. The Officers of Sanitary Authorities Every sanitary authority must appoint a medical officer and one or more sanitary inspectors, and PUBLIC HEALTH 91 county councils and the councils of certain municipal boroughs appoint analysts. In the case of medical officers and sanitary inspectors an attempt has been made to secure for them higher standards of qualifica- tion and salary, and security of tenure, by the regula- tion that the local authorities appointing them may receive from the Exchequer Contribution Account half their salaries, on condition that the Local Government Board approve the qualifications, method of appointment, and salary, and ratify the appointments made. In 1904 the medical officers of 1667 districts (991 urban, 633 rural, 43 port) had been so appointed, and the sanitary inspectors of 1607 districts (920 urban, 643 rural, 44 port). In the metropolis 30 medical officers and 304 inspectors held office under these conditions. But in fact the object of the arrangement, which is not compulsory, has not been attained ; the working of the Exchequer Contribution Account, as will be seen later, is such that there is no advantage whatever to the councils of counties and county boroughs in accepting these terms — their control over their officials is diminished, and they get no financial benefit in return ; as a con- sequence of this practically none of them make appointments under these conditions. The great majority of other authorities do get financial assist- ance, but as they are naturally unwilling to give up complete control of the persons appointed, they have managed to procure the approval of the Local Government Board for conditions of appointment which do, in fact, destroy that security of tenure which the plan was partly at least intended to obtain. 92 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT The appointments of analysts must in all cases be approved by the Local Government Board. Public Health Powees of the Local Government Board The powers of the Local Government Board as the central authority for public health are not as great as those of the same department in poor law matters, but nevertheless they are very important. Perhaps the chief task of the Board is to give advice and guidance to all local sanitary authorities, sometimes by circular on its own initiative, sometimes in reply to questions from particular bodies. For this purpose there is a staff of medical inspectors, and, in order to place their expert knowledge further at the disposal of the subordinate authorities, in addition to the information given in the manner indicated, central and local conferences with representatives of the latter are held from time to time. Moreover, the inspectors hold frequent enquiries which are sometimes a matter of routine (as into the adminis- tration of port sanitary authorities), and sometimes special (as into epidemics). These enquiries may be followed by recommendations and advice to the local authorities concerned, or in rarer cases (where there has been actual neglect of duty) by directions. The Board's approval is required for a large number of actions proposed to be taken by local authorities, such as the formation of special drainage districts and joint burial boards, housing schemes outside London, the purchase of gasworks, the ac- quisition or establishment of waterworks, the appoint- PUBLIC HEALTH 93 ment of officers whose salaries are to be charged partially on the Exchequer Contribution Account, the appointment of public analysts, and bye-laws in regard to such varied matters as hackney carriages, hop and fruit pickers, lodging-houses, recreation grounds, pleasure boats, public libraries, locomotives, water supply, streets and buildings, slaughter-houses, and swings and shooting galleries. In the majority of cases borrowings by local authorities for sanitary purposes require approval from the Board, which holds a local enquiry by its medical or, more usually, engineering inspectors — in 1903-4 the latter held as many as 1058 enquiries under this head alone. The Board has the power also of giving to rural sanitary authorities any or all of the powers of urban authori- ties ; and it may direct any authority to undertake duties which under the Public Health Acts are com- pulsory only at the discretion of the Board. Thus sec. 42 of the Public Health Act, 1875, orders that "every local authority may, and when required by order of the Local Government Board shall, themselves under- take or contract for the removal of house refuse from premises " ; and sec. 141 that " any local authority may, and if required by the Local Government Board shall, provide and fit up" mortuaries. The Board constitutes port sanitary authorities ; it has general powers to make orders finding on all authorities in case of plague ; it arbitrates in disputes between local boards; it inspects alkali works, and examines the quality of London water supplies; it watches the enforcement of the Vaccination Acts by the poor law guardians, and maintains a laboratory for the supply of pun: lymph ; it has Bpecial duties in regard to the 94 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT registration and regulations of canal boats used as dwellings. It collects annual reports of the local medical officers, which are compulsory for some matters, and publishes a valuable and elaborate annual report by its own chief medical officer. It is the duty of the Board to enforce the per- formance by the local sanitary authorities of the duties laid upon them by parliamentary enactments. On complaint from any source that a local authority is neglecting to fulfil its duties, or any part of them, under the Public Health Acts, the Board, if satisfied on enquiry that there has been such neglect, and if the local authority will not amend its ways, may either apply to the High Court of Justice for a writ of mandamus directed to the defaulting authority, or it may direct some person or persons to perform the neglected duty, at the expense of the local authority (Public Health Act.. 1875, sec. 299). Under sec. 106 of the same Act the Board, in the case of default by the local authority in regard to certain nuisances, may direct the local police to act, so far as to take any legal proceedings which the local authority might have instituted, and to recover the costs of such proceedings from the local authority, if not paid by the person proceeded against. Cases of such administrative action are now extremely rare, though it was occasionally necessary in the early years of the Board's history, and applications to the Court for the writ of man- damus are very infrequent — there was no instance of either kind in 1903-4 ; enquiry and pressure by the Board is usually sufficient to bring about the desired result. But it will be observed that the PUBLIC HEALTH 95 Board can take such steps only where there is actual neglect of duty ; where there is merely in- efficiency it can do nothing except hold enquiries, pillory local authorities by publishing the reports of the medical inspectors, and generally bring to bear such influence as it possesses. Much of the supervisory work is now given over to the county councils, but a remonstrance from the central and more distant authority is often far more effective than one from the local body whose members are perfectly well known. CHAPTER VIII PUBLIC HEALTH— (continued) A. General Sanitation It is the duty of the local sanitary authorities to see to the sewerage and drainage of their areas, and for that purpose they may themselves provide sewers, or purchase them if already made, and maintain sewage disposal works ; divisions and combinations of districts may be made for these purposes. They must also take care that houses and factories are kept in proper sanitary condition and may make bye-laws to secure that result ; they must watch for the existence of any nuisance (that is, anything in- jurious to health) both within and without houses, and take the steps necessary to bring about its abatement. For this constant inspection is neces- sary, and therefore the local authorities, by any of their officers, have powers of entry into any pre- mises at reasonable hours on showing reasonable cause. As part of its authority to prevent nuisances, the consent of an urban sanitary board is required for the establishment within its district of any of certain " offensive trades," and it may make bye- laws " to diminish the obnoxious or injurious effects thereof." Every local authority may, and if required by the Local Government Board must, provide for 96 PUBLIC HEALTH 97 the removal of house refuse; and the council of every urban district may, and if required must, undertake the proper cleansing of the streets. This latter power is very frequently conferred on the councils of rural districts also. All sanitary autho- rities may supply lighting, or contract for its supply, either by gas or electricity and they may then provide it for private buildings of all kinds ; and parish councils, with the approval of their parish meetings, may undertake the lighting of their areas. In order to prevent the spread of infectious disease the local authorities are bound to secure the dis- infection of houses where there has been such disease, and they may make any regulations and take any action which they think expedient in this matter. County councils may themselves establish, or direct subordinate authorities to establish, isola- tion hospitals, and districts may, by order of the Local Government Board, be combined for this purpose. To the same end, local authorities may make bye-laws to secure cleanliness in cowsheds, dairies, and milkshops, and to prevent the pollution of streams and the use of unwholesome drinking water. It is curious, however, that an important part of the prevention of infectious disease, the enforcement of the Vaccination Acts, is still left to the Boards of Guardians. Urban and rural districts may provide mortuaries, cemeteries, or crematoria ; and parishes may provide burial-grounds either separately or in combination. Under a long series of parliamentary enactments, the local sanitary authorities are entitled to make sanitary bye-laws. Q 98 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT This power they use freely, and in the year 1903-4 alone, the Local Government Board sanctioned no less than 500 series made under the various Public Health Acts, most of them being based on the model series prepared by the Board. For sewage and cleaning purposes, and for the promotion of public health generally, nothing is more important and necessary than an abundant water supply ; and the local authorities may them- selves provide this, either by establishing works or by acquiring works already in existence. Conditions in England have tended to bring about, in a great number of cases, the municipal ownership of the supply ; it has often, especially for the great towns, to be brought from a long distance. Manchester brings its water from Thirlmere (95 miles away), Birmingham from North Wales, and Liverpool from Lake Vyrnwy (68 miles distant). This involves an expenditure so great as in many cases to prevent the enterprise from being remunerative unless prices are charged which would tend to diminish con- sumption ; and as this is undesirable, municipal and other authorities are sometimes compelled to undertake the supply at a loss which is borne by the public rates as a part of the expenditure upon sanitation. Urban sanitary authorities and parish councils may provide public baths and wash- houses. As regards the English sanitary system, it may be said that in most of the large towns it is ad- mirable, and that in a large number of the smaller urban areas and rural districts it is very good ; and there can be no doubt that the general level PUBLIC HEALTH 99 of English public health administration, urban and rural, is considerably higher than that of any other country. But much remains to be done — there are backward authorities ; and without amendment of the law (which on the whole is sufficient) great progress could be made if the Local Government Board would only exercise a constant and unremitting pressure, not simply on authorities actually in default, but on all whose death-rate, for example, was above a certain point. More sanitary inspectors are needed, and many more women should be appointed. B. Inspection of Factories and Workshops The enforcement of the enactments in regard to factories and workshops is in the main the duty of the Home Office, acting by means of its large staff of inspectors, but since 1891 there has been an effort to make use of the local sanitary autho- rities, by transferring to them the supervision of the sanitary conditions of workshops and domestic factories. Up to 1901 the attempt was not very successful, mainly owing to the defects in the law, such as the insufficient powers given to local authorities (who had no satisfactory means of obtaining information as to the existence of the places they were required to inspect), the over- lapping of these with the functions of the cent ml inspectors, and the absence of any adequate control on the part of the Home Office over the local councils. The great consolidating Factory and Workshops 100 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT Act, 1901, made a serious effort to remedy this condition of affairs. Textile and non-textile factories are to be supervised solely by the Home Office inspectors, whilst the local sanitary authorities are given charge (so far as sanitary conditions are concerned) of " domestic factories " (i.e. " private dwelling-houses where only members of the family carry on without mechanical power " certain occu- pations specified in the schedule of the Act), " work- shops " (" places where work is carried on for gain without the aid of mechanical power," including hand laundries), and " workplaces " (a vague and general term which includes such places as stable yards and restaurant kitchens). The local sanitary authority is required to keep a register of all work- shops, to enforce numerous sanitary regulations, to see that proper provision is made in all factories for escape from fire, to receive lists of out-workers in certain trades, to see that no work is given out to be done in any place which is " injurious or dangerous to the health of the persons employed therein," and to prohibit for a time and for certain occupations (especially the making of wearing ap- parel) the use of places in which there is, or has recently been, any infectious disease. The medical officer of each sanitary district is required in his annual report to deal specially with the adminis- tration of the Act, and this part of the report must be sent to the Home Secretary. Lastly, under the Employment of Children Act, 1903, the local autho- rity may make bye-laws as to the employment of children under fourteen years of age generally, and of persons under sixteen for street trading. PUBLIC HEALTH 101 C. Housing Of recent years no problem of public health has attracted so much attention as Housing, which is a difficulty (though arising from different causes) in town and country alike. In the effort to secure decent and sufficient accommodation, there are three distinct matters which need attention— (i.) the es- tablishment and maintenance of the sanitary con- dition of existing houses, (ii.) the prevention of the rise of new slums, (hi.) the actual provision of house room. The first of these is attained to some extent under the ordinary Public Health Acts. Thus, under the Act of 1875, a local sanitary authority, in ad- dition to the inspection already described, must supervise cellar dwellings, and prevent the use of any which were not so used at the time of the passing of the Act ; it must keep a list of all common lodging-houses and their keepers, make bye-laws as to their conduct, and enforce certain special sanitary regulations ; and it may make bye- laws against overcrowding. If a nuisance exists such as to make a house, in the opinion of a court of summary jurisdiction, unfit for habitation, then the court, on application of the local authority, may prohibit its use until put in proper order. But it may be that it is practically impossible for this to be done, and for such cases the local authorities an- given special powers by Parts I. and II. of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890. Under that Act, if the medical officer, either on his own initiative or on the complaints of ratepayers, reports 102 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT that within a certain area of the district of a local authority " any houses, courts, or alleys are unfit for human habitation ; or the narrowness, closeness, and bad arrangement, or the bad condition of the streets and houses or groups of houses within such area, or the want of light, air, ventilation, or proper conveniences, or any other sanitary defects, or one or more of such causes, are dangerous or injurious to the health of the inhabitants either of the build- ings in the said area or of the neighbouring build- ings," then the local authority (subject to the approval of the Local Government Board, or in London of tho Home Office) may make an improve- ment scheme. For that purpose it may purchase the area so condemned (both land and houses), compulsorily if necessary, at the fair market value, without regard to enhanced rentals due to over- crowding ; and if it is proved that the houses " are unfit and not reasonably capable of being made fit for human habitation," then the price is to be only the value of the land and the materials thereon. The land once acquired, and the buildings upon it demolished, the authority can dedicate it as an open space, or it can lay out new streets, and then either lease or sell the land for the erection of work- ing-class dwellings, or itself erect dwellings. In any case, accommodation must in London be provided for at least one-half the number of persons dis- housed by any such improvement scheme; else- where the number is fixed in each case by the Local Government Board. Part II. of the Act enabled a local authority to order the closing and demolition of single houses or small groups of PUBLIC HEALTH 103 houses either because of their insanitary condition, or because they are " obstructive," i.e. render resi- dence in other buildings unhealthy by stopping ventilation or preventing sanitation. Much has been done by urban authorities under Part I. Up to 1904 the London County Council has displaced 16,421 persons and re-housed 13,161. Between 1891 and 1902 21 town councils and 1 urban district council made improvement schemes, and a more recent case is at Bolton, where the town council has been authorised to clear an un- healthy area of 961 square yards. Under Part II. of the Act in the year 1903-4 authorities outside London received complaints as to 4251 houses ; of these 2230 were put into proper condition without closing orders being issued, 791 were closed or demolished by the owners voluntarily, 617 were closed compulsorily and 81 compulsorily demolished. Seven authorities outside London have made im- provement schemes under Part II., and twelve in London with the aid of the London County Council. These powers are to enable the sanitary adminis- tration to deal with existing areas; to prevent the rise of such areas there are the bye-laws in regard to buildings, which the local authorities are autho- rised to make with the approval of the Local Government Board, and such special enactments as the London Building Act, 1894. The regulations made under these powers deal with many varied details, such as the height of buildings, width of streets, amount of air space in rooms, thickness of walls and nature of materials employed, and sanitary equipment generally. The bye-laws of the great 104 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT towns are usually quite satisfactory, and for the guidance of authorities generally, and especially of the smaller and rural authorities, the Local Govern- ment Board issues model bye-laws. The enforcement of the building clauses of the Public Health Acts, and the stringency of the regulations actually made, depend entirely on the interest and energy of the local authorities ; and there is evidence that they err in many cases rather on the side of over-severity, and that the adoption, especially by rural authorities, of the model bye-laws without sufficient regard to local conditions, has seriously increased the cost of building operations and discouraged builders, particu- larly in the rural districts. In spite of all that has been done under these powers, it has been thought desirable to go further, and to authorise local authorities themselves to supplement private enterprise in the provision of house accommodation. This is a development peculiar to Great Britain; practically nowhere else have the authorities themselves undertaken the supply of houses — they have confined themselves to stimulating private enterprise and smoothing its path. But Part III. of the Act of 1890, and its amendments in 1900 and 1903, authorised the County Council in London, and any town or urban district council elsewhere (and any rural district council with the approval of its county council) to acquire land (within or without its own adminis- trative area) and build houses thereon. It may contract for the purchase or lease of any lodging- house already, or hereafter to be, built or provided; or it may convert any existing buildings into lodg- PUBLIC HEALTH 105 ing-houses — a term defined as including "separate houses or cottages for the working classes, whether containing one or several tenements." All schemes need departmental approval ; loans may be raised, and the Act of 1903 extended the maximum period of repayment (which is, however, seldom allowed) from sixty to eighty years. Some seventy authori- ties have so far adopted Part III. and its amend- ments, and have taken various steps ; for example, the London County Council has initiated schemes to house nearly 70,000 persons, Manchester has housed over 2700, and the corporations of Liverpool, Plymouth, Sheffield, Hull, Salford, Southampton, West Ham, and Wolverhampton have all carried out schemes of varying extent. Yet municipal housing has so far not given un- mixed satisfaction, and there are some signs of reac- tion against the movement. Complaint is made that the rents charged have usually been so high as to be beyond the reach of the poor ; that this has been due in part to the limited period (prior to the Act of 1903) for the repayment of loans, and to the severity of the building regulations, but in part also to the unnecessarily elaborate character of the buildings erected. It is certain that when a clear- ance has been made, and new dwellings erected, the persons dishoused have seldom returned to the area; tiny have gone to make matters worse else- where Moreover, in housing enterprises where a profit is made, if the rents are competitive the local authority is a wholly unnecessary rival to private builders; if the rents are non - competitive, then unless the municipality houses its whole population, 106 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT a favoured class is created, securing better accom- modation at the saiue rent as the rest of the in- habitants, or equivalent accommodation at a lower rent. This is still more the case where the rents are unremunerative ; then a favoured class is estab- lished at the cost of the general ratepayer. If the housing schemes provided for the very poor, this would be defensible, but hitherto they have not done so. The only adequate justification for munici- pal housing is that it forms part of public health administration ; it will be that, only when it pro- vides simple and cheap accommodation for the very poor, and (with strict surveillance) for the "undesirables" who are turned out of their abodes by the vigorous enforcement of the sanitary law. Apart from this, the most effective means of dealing with the housing problem, so far at least as the towns are concerned, seems to be the development of swift and inexpensive means of transit and com- munication, which will enable the population to be spread over larger areas, and factories to be moved further and further out from the urban areas. But that question must be discussed separately. D. Protection of Food Supply This is strictly a part of the ordinary sanitary administration for preventing the rise or extension of disease, but merits special notice. Under section 116 of the Public Health Act, 1875, any medical officer or sanitary inspector " may at all reasonable times inspect and examine any animal, carcass, meat, poultry, game, flesh, fish, fruit, vegetables, corn, bread, PUBLIC HEALTH 107 Hour or milk . . . intended for the food of man;" and if it is " diseased or unsound or unwholesome or unfit for the food of man," it may be seized by the officer and condemned by a justice, apart from any other penalty inflicted on the purveyor or other person concerned. Section 28 of the Public Health Amendment Act, 1890, extends this to " all articles intended for the food of man, sold or exposed for sale, or deposited in any place for the purpose of sale, or of preparation for sale." For the purpose of the analysis of samples taken, or commodities seized, under these and other powers, the councils of counties and of certain boroughs must appoint analysts, and 231 have been so appointed. In 1903, 78,077 samples were analysed, and 6169 (7*9 per cent.) were reported against ; legal proceedings were taken in 3508 cases. The following table orives remarkable evidence as to the effect in this direction of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, and the inspection under the Public Health Acts : — Years. Number of Samples. A -\ crape Percentage Reported Against. 1-77-81 L882 86 1—7 9] L892 96 L896 1901 83,442 108,864 L34,231 198,713 2 0,166 16-2 13-9 11-7 106 9-0 1902 1903 72,321 78,077 8-7 7-9 Further, in order to prevent the supplies becoming contaminated, there has been special legislation as 108 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT to dairies, bakeries, and the diseases of animals. In the case of dairies, which are denned as including " any farm, farm-house, cow-shed, milk-store, milk- shop, or other place from which milk is supplied or kept for purposes of sale," in addition to ordinary regulative powers, the London County Council in the metropolis and elsewhere any sanitary authority which has adopted the Infectious Diseases Preven- tion Act, 1890, can, on the report of the medical officer and the veterinary inspector, prohibit, for such time as it thinks advisable, the supply of milk from any dairy from which disease has been, or may be, caused. The Act has been adopted by 674 urban and about 300 rural authorities. For bakeries local authorities have powers of inspection under various Acts, and no new underground bakeries are per- mitted. Urban sanitary authorities may license slaughter-houses, under conditions imposed by them, or they may themselves provide such places ; and finally the councils of all counties and of boroughs with 10,000 inhabitants, are authorities under the Diseases of Animals Acts, and have to carry out all regulations made in connection therewith by the Board of Agriculture. E. Provision of Means of Recreation A series of Adoptive Acts enables various authori- ties to make some provision for the physical and intellectual recreation of the citizens, and this work may conveniently be treated here as a part of public health administration. Any urban sanitary authority and the council of any rural parish may provide PUBLIC HEALTH 109 public swimming and other baths, and during five months of each year a swimming bath may be turned into a gymnasium. Much use has been made of this power by urban authorities, and the transformation of swimming baths into gymnasiums during the winter months is very common. Another enactment, the Museums and Gymnasiums Act, 1891, enables urban sanitary authorities to provide gymnasiums, and to levy for that purpose a rate not exceeding one halfpenny in the pound ; and up to 1904 it had been adopted by 42 authorities. The greatest amount of work in the supply of opportunities of recreation has been done by local authorities both by clauses in the Public Health Acts and special legislation, enabling them to provide and maintain parks and open spaces. Any urban council, and any rural district or parish council, with the consent of the Local Government Board, may pur- chase or accept and manage land for parks, open spaces, public playgrounds, and promenades. Many of the larger urban authorities have acquired similar powers under Private Acts ; in 190o the outstanding debt of local authorities incurred for these purposes was £7,586,000, and the expenditure on maintenance was £707,543. The provision made for intellectual recreation con- sists mainly of libraries, museums, and art galleries. The Public Libraries Act, 1892 (which consolidates previous legislation), may be adopted in any urban area or rural parish, and under it libraries, museums, and art galleries may be established. The rate to be levied may not exceed one penny in the pound, but in a few cases this limit has been removed by clauses 110 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT in private Acts. Up to 1904 the Act had been adopted by 181 urban and 35 parish councils, and similar powers were employed in at least 177 other urban areas under earlier legislation and in 21 metropolitan boroughs. The Museums and Gymna- siums Act, 1891, had also been adopted, so far as it relates to museums, by 58 urban authorities. CHAPTER IX (I.) TRANSIT.— (II.) PROTECTION OF LIFE AND PROPERTY (I.) Transit Oxe of the most pressing tasks of local adminis- trators at the present day is the provision or control of facilities for transit adapted to modern needs. It is a social problem, since the supply of cheap and rapid means of transit, enabling the worker to live at some distance from his place of employ- ment, seems likely (together with the removal of industries to the country districts, which depends also on easy transport) to be the only effective means of relieving the congestion of population in the towns. It is an administrative problem, for the discovery of the bicycle and the motor, and the development of the electric tramway, have not only brought the roads again into use for long-distance travelling, but have also raised serious quest inns both of road construction and of the control of traffic. So far the action of local authorities has been limited to two things — the making and maintenance of highways and streets, and the provision of tramways and light railways. 112 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT A. Highways and Streets In England and Wales the maintenance of all ordinary roads has always been a local duty ; whilst until about the middle of last century the great roads were usually managed by trustees and sup- ported by tolls. In the nineteenth century there was much legislation on the subject, beginning with the Highways Act of 1835, and ending with the Local Government Acts of 1888 and 1894, which made the arrangements now in force. Highways outside county boroughs are divided into two classes — main roads and district roads. The former include a number of what were once turnpike roads, and other highways declared by the county authorities to be main roads, " by reason of their being mediums of communication between great towns," or on other grounds. These are maintained and repaired by the councils of the counties through which they pass, but any urban authority was authorised to claim, within a certain period after the passing of the Act of 1888, or within twelve months of a road becoming a main road, to take over the maintenance and repair of such main roads as fell within its area, in return for such annual payment from the county council as may be agreed upon, or settled by arbitration. Further, a rural district council may do the same, if the county council permits; but it has no right in the matter. In 1903 the total length of main roads in England and Wales was 27,223 miles, of which 16,580 were maintained by the county councils directly; 7068 by the rural district councils, TRANSIT 113 and 3575 by urban authorities, under the con- ditions which have been described. The urban councils make very full use of their right, since they have taken over these 3575 miles out of 4010 within their areas. It rests entirely with the county councils to determine what shall be main roads, and whilst some of them have taken over almost all the roads of importance, others have limited the " maining " of roads as much as possible. There is no appeal from their de- cisions. District roads are the smaller highways outside the urban areas ; they are administered by the rural district councils at their own cost, though a county council may, if it think fit, contribute thereto. This has been done in many cases, subject usually to the condition that the state of the roads towards which the contributions are made must be certi- fied as satisfactory by the county surveyor. In 1903 the rural district councils were responsible for 94,978 miles of road. Urban authorities maintain their streets entirely at their own expense ; the councils of county boroughs are charged also with the upkeep of such portions of main roads as fall within the borough boundaries. In London the highway autho- rities arc the twenty-eight metropolitan borough councils and the Corporation of the city. Urban authorities may take over new streets made by private enterprise, and may enforce the sewering and paving of streets which they do not take over; they may make street improvements, and for that, purpose may acquire land compulsorily, ii 114 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT as may any authority for the making of new roads or the widening of those which already exist. So that altogether there are about 1884 highway authorities of one kind and another in England and Wales. Their total expenditure, not out of loans, on actual maintenance was in the financial year 1902-3 £10,234,332 ; and to this must be added some £2,800,000 for interest and repayment of loans, and a further £7,000,000 expended out of new loans for highways and street improvements (including the amount spent for this latter purpose by the London County Council). It should be added that these figures include amounts spent on bridges, for which county and municipal councils are responsible. It is generally admitted that the highway system of this country is not in a very satisfactory state, so far as its organisation is concerned. In the first place, there are too many small authorities, and there is no means provided for securing the co-ordin- ation of the highway schemes of the various areas. In the case of many of the ordinary district roads this is not of very great importance ; but it is always advisable that the system of one authority should link on as simply and easily as possible to those of its neighbours — and this is especially so with great cities and the areas around them. For the main roads it is most desirable that there should be uni- formity of construction so far as practicable, and it is clear that when such a road as the Great North Road from London to Edinburgh is controlled by 72 distinct authorities, the desired uniformity is hardly likely to be attained. It is also without doubt true that since many of the small councils have compara- TRANSIT 115 tively little mileage to maintain, they are scarcely to be expected to do the work so well or so cheaply as authorities with large areas which justify them in keeping skilled and permanent highway staffs; the result is unavoidably a certain amount of waste, alike of money and energy. And finally, owing to recent scientific developments so many of the great roads are becoming of national use, and are subject to so much wear and tear, that it is hardly possible to continue to throw on the localities through which they chance to pass the whole cost of their upkeep. When the Portsmouth road, for instance, is so greatly used by travellers from and to London, it is scarcely fair that the whole burden of its maintenance should be borne by the rural counties in which it falls. In this respect the theory of the turnpike roads — that the users should pay for them — was sound, though inconvenient and harassing in practice. As a return to that arrangement is impracticable, the alternative plan is to throw on the National Exchequer the whole or part of the cost of those roads which may fairly be called " national." A Departmental Committee of enquiry into high- way administration, made in 1903 a report which contained a number of suggestions for reform. It recognised that the maintenance of roads is so important a part of the work of the rural district councils, and receives so much attention from them, that they cannot well be deprived of it. But the committee recommended that for main roads there should be (geographical) county highway boards, representative of all the authorities which have at present rights and duties in regard to main road 116 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT this in order to get rid of a number of inconveniences and difficulties which arise at present from the division of work between the county and urban district councils, and to secure the co-ordination of the systems of the administrative counties and the county boroughs in their midst. If such authorities were set up, even only as Boards of control, it would be easy to give them powers of supervision over the work of the district councils, so as to secure that their systems connected properly and in the most convenient way, both with one another and with the main roads. Lastly, the committee recommended that there should be a government grant towards those roads which could reasonably be deemed of national utility ; a special division of the Local Government Board, possibly aided by an advisory committee, should administer the grant, determining to what roads it should be given, and requiring in return a certain minimum standard of efficiency of maintenance. This would be a movement in the direction of the plan which has been so successful in France, where a great network of main roads — connecting Paris with the frontier, with the great military and naval stations, and with the chief cities of the interior, or uniting the chief towns — is kept up by the central government, which commonly carries out the work of construction and repair directly. The arrangement suggested for this country would secure somewhat the same results, without that centralisation of the work which is the chief disadvantage of the French method. TRANSIT 117 B. Tramways and Light Railways The beginning and basis of all general legislation upon this subject was the Tramways Act of 1870. It authorised the Board of Trade to grant Pro- visional Orders (requiring Parliamentary confirma- tion) to local authorities or private individuals or companies for the making and working of tram- ways; but in the case of private individuals or companies the approval of the authority responsible for the maintenance of the roads had to be obtained, and this enabled it to impose terms on the private undertakers, usually as to workmen's fares, frequency of cars, &c. — the charge of a rent for the use of the roads was never allowed. Provision was also made in the Act for the acquisition of the under- takings by the local authorities, either by friendly agreement at any time, or compulsorily at the end of twenty-one years. The Act did not exclude procedure by private Bill, but neither by the general Act nor by private Bill were local authorities empowered to work tram- ways; they might construct them, and then they must either lease them to be worked by a person or company, or — an impossible proceeding — leave the tramways open to be used by the public on payment of tolls. Though there was a little un- certainty at first as to the policy of Parliament, all doubt was soon at an end, and until 1882 it was the recognised rule that no local authority could be allowed to work its tramways itself — and so great cities like Manchester, Liverpool, Birming- ham, and Glasgow (for the Act of 1870 applied 118 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT equally to Scotland) made and then leased their lines at an annual rental. But the unfortunate case of Huddersfield, which could not lease the tramways it had made, induced Parliament to modify its policy slightly, in the Huddersfield Corporation Act, 1882, by allowing the Board of Trade to license the Corporation to work the lines, if it were satisfied that they could not be leased. This was immediately done ; but it was not until 1892 that the plan was generalised by an alteration of the Standing Orders of Parliament to enable the Select Committee on any Tramways Bill to insert the " Huddersfield clause " if it thought fit. Then in 1896 the London County Council and the Leeds Corpora- tion secured Acts which gave them an unrestricted power of making and working tramways. All restraints were then abandoned, and since the end of the 1896 session local authorities have been given, both by Bill and Provisional Order, the right to work tramways freely, so far as their own districts are concerned. But it is evident that a tramway system, if it is to be effective, cannot always stop at the boundaries of the area which it supplies ; it must often be carried farther. But as soon as this happens, it is in the area of another authority ; what are to be the relations between the tramway-owning authority and the other ? If the tramways are in the hands of a private company, there is of course no diffi- culty ; but where they are owned by a local autho- rity itself, some difficult questions arise. This particular problem, which affects the whole matter of " municipal trading," will be discussed later ; here it need only be remarked that there are three TRANSIT 119 alternatives if the tramways are owned by local bodies — each authority may run its own system, and the linking of the two be made by agreement ; there may be a joint board ; or one authority may be allowed to work both systems. The Tramways Act contemplated only the first two of these methods, but the necessities of the situation, especially in places where one large authority is surrounded by a number of small urban areas, no one of which could possibly have tramways of its own, induced Parliament to amend its Standing Orders in 1893 so as to allow the insertion in private Acts of clauses empowering local authorities to make and work tramways in the areas of other authorities, subject to their consent, and to conditions agreed upon. The Tramways Act and the various arrangements made under it gave tolerable facilities for the supply of the towns and their outlying districts; but it made no effective provision for the rural portions of the country. Yet it was obviously desirable that there should be some means of linking villages with towns, and of facilitating transit in the country districts. Accordingly, in 1896, Parliament passed the Light Railways Act, which provided for the appointment of three Commissioners by the Board of Trade. Any county, town, or district council, any individual, corporation, or company, or any two authorities jointly, may promote a scheme and apply to the Commissioners for an order which needs the confirmation of the Board of Trade, which if the Bcheme be very large may require it to be submitted to Purl i an ient as a private Bill. Local authorities may by such permission construct and work, or 120 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT contract for the construction and working, of light railways — which are steam or electric tramways using the ordinary highways ; they may take shares in a company, or advance money to it on loan, and provision is made in that case for the representation of the authorities on the board of directors. Up to the present no county council has obtained power actually to work the lines itself. Though town councils may promote light railways, the Commis- sioners refuse to grant orders under this Act for the construction of lines entirely within the area of one urban authority, on the ground that such schemes fall under the Tramways Act. Local authorities have made great use of the powers which they have thus received. The follow- ing table shows the extent of tramway and light railway enterprise, and the share of local authori- ties therein, at the commencement of 1904. The figures are for the whole of the United Kingdom, but there is only one municipal undertaking in Ireland (at Belfast) : — Tramways and Light Eailways. Total Expendi- ture on Capital Accounts. No. of Miles Open for Traffic. No. of Under- takings. Double Lines. 768 292 Single Lines. Total. Of Local Authorities . Of Private Companies . £28,060,524 18,390,920 380 400 1148 692 162 150 Totals . . £46,451,444 1060 780 1840 312 PROTECTION OF LIFE AND PROPERTY 121 It will be noticed that whilst the numbers of " municipal " and private undertakings are nearly equal., the former represent a much greater mileage of double track. Of the whole 1840 miles, 1162 are electric tramways or railways, and only 235 are horse tramways, the remainder being worked by steam, cable, or gas-motors. This total of 1840 miles com- pares with 269 in 1878, and 940 in 1890. Moreover, 755 additional miles of double track, and 652 of single track, had been authorised by March 1904. On the lines open for traffic the net receipts in 1903-4 were £2,912,110. Thus the work is going rapidly forward, and there can be no question as to its beneficent results ; the only doubt is as to the possibility that, as steam superseded horse power, and electricity has replaced them both, the appear- ance of the motor omnibus may not render the costly permanent way of the present tram-cars ultimately unnecessary. (II.) Protection of Life and Property (a) The present organisation of the police system dates from 1856, when it became evident that many authorities would make no use of the adoptive powers given them by Parliament in 1839. All counties and boroughs were compelled to maintain constabulary forces, and the central government undertook to contribute one-quarter (subsequently increased to one-hall) of the cost of the pay and clothing of each force certified as efficient by in- spectors of the Home Office. Since 1856 the only changes have been in the constitution of the police 122 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT authority in the counties, and the reduction of the number of separate constabulary forces by the with- drawal from the smaller boroughs of the privilege of independence as police authorities. Thus since 1882 no separate force can be established in boroughs with less than 20,000 inhabitants, and the Local Government Act, 1888, transferred the policing of all boroughs with less than 10,000 inhabitants to the county authorities ; the same transference can be made in the case of other boroughs by consent, and has taken place in a large number of instances. So that the remaining independent police areas are the administrative counties and boroughs with 10,000 inhabitants, and not less than 20,000 if in- corporated since 1882, which have not surrendered their powers to the county councils. In the counties the constabulary force is controlled by a Standing Joint Committee, composed of equal numbers of representatives of the county council and of the justices of the court of quarter-sessions ; the Committee receives its funds from the county council, and reports to it, but is in administrative matters independent. It appoints the chief con- stable, who is answerable for the direction and disposition of the force, and the clerk of the peace, who is also clerk to the county council. In the boroughs with a separate force, each town council is required to appoint a Watch Committee, for the control and management of the police ; there is also a chief constable, appointed by the council. All police officers are bound to carry out the orders of the justices of the peace for the county or borough without reference to the committees. PROTECTION OF LIFE AND PROPERTY 123 The central authority for police is the Home Secretary, but his powers are very limited in com- parison with those possessed by the Minister of the Interior in any other European country ; he has no direct control over the local forces. His approval is needed for the appointments of chief constables, and for police bye-laws ; and he inspects, through a staff of special officers, all constabulary forces, and a certificate of efficiency from him is necessary before a local authority can obtain the state grant. The certificate is very rarely with- held, the mere threat of action to be taken if im- provements are not made by the next annual inspection being usually sufficient. Though the present form of the police grant is bad, yet the arrangement has on the whole been extremely successful in promoting the establishment and maintenance of efficient local forces. The Metro- politan Police, who administer an area which in- cludes the administrative county of London, the county of Middlesex, parts of Surrey, Kent, Essex, and Hertfordshire, and the Royal Dockyards, are controlled solely by the Home Office, though the local authorities bear practically the whole cost. For one square mile of the city of London, in the centre of this great area, the police force is main- tained by the Corporation of the city, and has no connection with the Metropolitan Police. The cost of police in l'J02-3 was £5,720,038, of which £2,117,669 was for the Metropolitan Police alone. (h) Every county council appoints one or more coroners, and so do those quarter-sessions boroughs with more than 10,000 inhabitants which received 124 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT their courts of quarter-sessions prior to 1888. In this respect county and non-county boroughs are in the same position. (c) Fire brigades, or other provision for the pro- tection of property against danger by fire, may be maintained by all urban authorities, and by rural district and parish councils. In London the Metro- politan Fire Brigade is under the County Council. The total amount spent under this head in 1902-3 was £475,293, of which £207,504 was expended by the London County Council, £254,197 by other urban authorities, and the remainder by rural district and parish authorities. CHAPTER X MUNICIPAL POLICY AND MUNICIPAL TRADING During the last few years there has been much controversy as to the action proper to be taken by local authorities in regard to one particular class of public services — those, that is, which necessitate the maintenance of a large and very special plant, managed by an expert staff, and are generally capable of being so conducted as to yield a finan- cial profit. These include waterworks (usually), gasworks, electric light and power works, tram- ways of various kinds, and a number of mis- cellaneous services. All these have usually been regarded as good commercial undertakings likely to pay satisfactory dividends, and therefore fit objects for private enterprise ; and towards them a local authority may adopt any one of three policies. It may leave them to private companies, and allow the companies to go their own way uncontrolled, that is, to occupy the same position towards the public as a private trader towards his customers. Or, secondly, it may impose special obligations and restrictions upon the companies; it may limit the profits or charges, enforce regulations as to the quality and quantity of the commodities supplied, and make any other conditions which it thinks proper and the law will allow. Or, thirdly, it may itself under- lie 126 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT take to supply the services needed, either alone or in competition with private undertakings. There is one other policy, midway between the second and third, whereby the local authority owns the plant necessary for the service, but leaves the working of it to a private company, so that it runs no commercial risk itself. This plan, which, as we have seen, was the one originally authorised by Parliament for the pro- vision of tramways, has however rarely been very suc- cessful, and is generally being given up. The policy of leaving the supply of the services uncontrolled is recognised in this country at least as being practically impossible, and the controversy rages between the supporters of the second and third alternatives. In Great Britain the tendency has been for the services to pass rapidly through the three stages, and to become completely municipalised — that is, to be owned and worked by the local authorities. Councils have been led to adopt this policy by a number of varied considerations. There was first the belief, based on practical experience, that com- petition in the supply of water, gas, electric light, and means of transit in any particular locality is often practically impossible, and is always ineffec- tive ; that in fact all such services tend (for both economic and administrative reasons) to become monopolies. If these services were essential to the well-being of the cities, and unless undertaken by the councils would be supplied by private companies which consider primarily only their own interests, then the councils thought themselves justified in taking action. This has been the case particularly in regard to all those services which directly or MUNICIPAL POLICY AND TRADING 127 indirectly promote public health, such as water supply, and tramways, which relieve the pressure on the central districts of great cities. Secondly, there were administrative reasons connected with the control of the streets. And, thirdly, there was the belief formulated by Mr. Chamberlain as Mayor of Birmingham in 1874, in his speech advocating the purchase of the gasworks by the Corporation. He believed that the council of a great city " possessed a considerable amount of business ability and com- mercial experience, and that its members were ani- mated by perfect disinterestedness in their service to the town. . . . He held distinctly that all monopolies which were sustained in any way by the state ought to be in the hands of the repre- sentatives of the people, by whom they should be administered and to whom the profits should go. At present the council had inadequate means for discharging all the obligations and responsibilities devolving upon them, and he believed that the pres- sure of the rates would become intolerable unless some compensation could be found in such a pro- posal as that before the council. The purchase would help to relieve the ratepayers of burdens which were every day becoming more oppressive." It should be remarked that this allocation of profits to the relief of rates does not meet with approval from all the supporters of municipal ownership. It is much practised, but there were some witnesses before the Municipal Trading Committee of 1900 who held that all profits should be used for the reduction of the prices charged to the consumers ; and their opinion is summarised by a recent writer. 128 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT who remarks that " the duty of the municipality is to make as little profit as possible, whereas the duty of the commercial company is to make as much profit as possible. An electric lighting company paying a dividend of ten per cent, is a triumph of good management ; a municipal electric lighting committee making profits at the same rate is guilty of social malversation." The doctrine is that a municipality should undertake only those enterprises which promote the objects for whose realisation the local authorities exist — what has been called " civic housekeeping " ; that they should therefore aim at encouraging the consumption of the largest possible amount of water and light, and the fullest use of the tramways ; and that consequently the charges should be regarded, not as prices for a commodity, but as fees for a service rendered to the citizens by the local authorities. These fees should do no more than cover the cost of the service. There is much to be said in favour of this doctrine, but it has not received the approval of the great majority of the authorities concerned. They have to do much costly work which is altogether un- remunerative and, to set off this to some extent, they are naturally anxious to make what profit they can on other services; and, moreover, the individual citizen may prefer to pay a trifle more for his tram rides, or for his gas and water (of which he can regulate his consumption as he pleases), rather than be compelled to pay higher rates. There is, of course, the possible danger that large profits so used may permit extravagant expenditure to pass unnoticed by the ordinary citizen, since his MUNICIPAL POLICY AND TRADING 129 attention is not drawn to it by rising rates ; but so far it would be difficult to find any actual illustra- tions of this. In Great Britain, then, public ownership of public services has gone very far. In 1902, in England and Wales alone, according to the latest complete returns (relating only to municipal boroughs), there were 193 town councils owning waterworks, 97 owning gasworks, 102 supplying electricity, and 45 working or owning tramways; and there were numerous other "reproductive undertakings" in- cluding harbours, piers, docks, municipal dwellings, and markets, and a number of miscellaneous things such as canals, ferries, and a racecourse at Don- caster, owned by local authorities. Many urban dis- trict councils also have property of these various kinds; and in the last two years there has been much de- velopment of public ownership especially in regard to tramways and electricity. The following table gives the relative shares of local authorities and private companies in the supply of the principal public services of this kind in England and Wales in 1902-3:— Service. Local Authorities. Companies. der- 1 lapital Outlay. Under- takings. Capital Outlay. Wafer . . Train v. Ele 788 131 21 13 323 (Not known) £20,049,000 28,967,000 ,000,000 237 L2] 438 145 (Not known) £13,804, 1 75,471,000 26,000,000 130 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT What is the policy elsewhere? In Prussia, and Germany generally, it has been either to bring the services under very strict control, or to municipalise them. The latter course has been adopted in many cases ; and it is well to remember that German civic administrators have not been influenced in the least by any of those " socialistic ideas " which are so often alleged to have animated British councils, but have deliberately adopted municipalisation be- cause they believed that it would best promote administrative efficiency. In the United States, on the other hand, there appears to be no instance of a city owning and working its tramways, very few owning gasworks, and only a small proportion having municipal electric light. But somewhat more than one-half own their water supply, and for the other services it is customary to impose more or less stringent conditions and varying financial payments in return for what are practically monopoly privileges granted by the civic authorities to private companies. The system has worked fairly well, but nevertheless the greater number of civic re- formers in the United States are in favour of municipal ownership. In the last few years the whole policy has been fiercely attacked in Great Britain; but the contro- versy has changed its ground. It is no longer concerned with a general principle — that is admitted within limits — but with its particular applications. There is a consensus of opinion, for instance, that the water supply should be in the hands of the local authorities; but once that be admitted, the whole of the theoretical case against a large part of MUNICIPAL POLICY AND TRADING 131 municipal ownership is abandoned. For the argu- ments for a municipal water supply — that it is a monopoly, because of both the physical limitation of its amount and the economic and administrative impossibility of competing supplies in the same area, and that it is desirable to encourage the consump- tion as much as possible, and therefore to make charges which are fees rather than prices — these apply with nearly equal force to tramways, gas and electricity supply, and markets. Criticism is then leaving aside the question of principle and con- fining itself to the practical problem, which is simply this — taking all the circumstances into considera- tion, does the municipalisation of a particular service present a balance of advantages or disadvantages ? This involves the separate examination of the services as rendered under great varieties of con- ditions; and in the enquiry it must be borne con- stantly in mind that the choice is not between municipal action and uncontrolled private enterprise, but between a municipal service and a private but controlled service. The criticisms directed against " municipal trad- ing " (a misleading term, since the primary object of municipal ownership is never to obtain an ordinary business profit), fall into two groups — the first financial, the second administrative and social. To take the financial question first. The Board of Trade return of 1902 gives the following figures in regard to the finance of the reproductive under- takingfl of tho municipal boroughs only: — 12,662,430 132 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT Total capital provided (inclusive of loans) £121,172,372 Capital borrowed .... 117,032,923 Borrowed capital paid off . . . 16,246,519 Outstanding balance of borrowed capi- tal (1902) 100,786,404 Average annual income (1898-1902) 13,040,711 Average annual expenditure — Working expenses . £8,228,706" Interest and repay- ment of loans . 4,240,450 Depreciation fund . 193,274> Net Profit . . . 378,281 But these figures need to be used with very great care. For in the first place amongst these " repro- ductive " undertakings are included baths and wash- houses and cemeteries, which ought not to be included at all, since a loss on them is inevitable. Further, waterworks are included, and the larger and more costly of these (as at Birmingham and Manchester), are often works which no private company could undertake, and hence on the 193 municipal water supplies given in the return, though the total capital was nearly 57 million pounds, the net profit was only £90,000. Further, in estimating the actual trading profit, it is necessary not only to add to the net profit the amount of interest (£2,975,906) paid on loans, the repayment of capital being equivalent to a contribution towards a depreciation fund ; but allowance must also be made for the fact that a large number of municipal authorities do not credit the accounts of their enterprises with the full value of the water, gas, MUNICIPAL POLICY AND TRADING 133 or electricity used for municipal purposes. These various considerations, and the fact that normally a municipality does not attempt to charge the highest prices which the market will bear, cause any criticism merely from the trading standpoint of the figures given above to be little more than a waste of time. To the ordinary trader the financial result is all-important ; to the munici- palise^ whilst it is never insignificant, it is not always the primary consideration. Undoubtedly there is need for greater caution, and it is probably true that the financial methods adopted by town councils have not always been very prudent. Of recent years they have been too much in a hurry, with the result that the market has become over- loaded with municipal securities. They have not always made adequate allowance for depreciation, and the repayment of loans has extended over a longer period than the lifetime of the plant for which they were contracted; with the result that they have had to raise new loans, to keep the plant efficient, before the old ones have been discharged. The municipalities cannot be expected to provide a large depreciation fund in addition to the provision for the repayment of loans ; but the period allowed for this latter purpose should never, in the case of reproductive undertakings, be allowed to exceed the probable duration of the plant. Where the privilege of supplying any service is granted to a private company, it is customary in the United States and Germany for financial obligations (in addition to other conditions) to be imposed upon it. These take various forms — rem 134 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT for the use of the streets, contributions towards their upkeep, and payment to the municipal authorities of a percentage of the gross or net pro- ceeds of the undertaking. The idea is that a monopolistic privilege or " franchise " is given, and a price must be paid for it. But it is clear that all such payments form part of the working ex- penses of the company ; i.e. it must get them out of the consumers of the commodity which it supplies, and therefore it must charge the public just so much more than it need do if such payments were not made. It may be argued that in any case the company would get as much out of the consumers as possible, and it is just as well that some part of it should go into the coffers of the city. But on the whole it is clearly preferable that the policy of the municipal authorities should be, not to do any- thing which shall give the company an excuse for high charges, but to secure for the citizens as efficient and adequate a service as possible. In Great Britain the privileges are granted by Parlia- ment, and the local authority's consent is not re- quired — though a Select Committee will listen to its representations — except in the case of tramways, where the Standing Orders of Parliament require that a private company promoting a Tramways Bill must prove the consent of the local highway authority. This gives the authorities power to impose conditions in return for their consent, and this is very frequently done. Parliament has never allowed a rent to be required, and on the whole the tendency has been to impose comparatively few directly financial obligations, for Parliament has MUNICIPAL POLICY AND TRADING 135 always regarded these with distrust, except so far as they are concerned with the maintenance of the streets through which the tramways run. Un- doubtedly there is a slight danger that a local authority may be unduly harassing and exacting ; but if the power be wisely used, by the imposition of reasonable conditions (as to hours of service, frequency of cars, workmen's fares, &c), it can be most effective in safeguarding the interests of the citizens. The same method could be applied to all services, and there are some reasons why under present conditions it is preferable to actual muni- cipal ownership. It has the great merit of giving the municipality a control which it can use for the benefit of the citizens, without involving financial responsibility. We may pass now to the second group of con- siderations — those which we have called adminis- trative and social. Some of those commonly urged have very little validity. There is, for instance, the alleged " injurious effect upon work strictly within the municipal sphere of operation — the fact that in giving attention to trading operations the 'unproductive' work is almost certain to be neg- lected." This is one of the arguments which can only be answered by an appeal to facts ; and there is no evidence whatever in support of it. In Great Britain the advance has been in all directions, and the growth of municipal trading has not been ac- companied by any decline in the efficiency of such unproductive work as health administration, but rather by an improvement. A more serious set of objections is concerned 136 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT with management. There is, it is alleged, no guarantee that municipal monopolists will be any- better than other monopolists, and they may easily be worse, in the performance of their work. All monopolist companies tend to be much less enter- prising than companies which have to fight for their existence ; and the conditions under which municipal authorities work tend to make this characteristic still more pronounced in their case. If a town council has borrowed large sums for horse tramways, and has not paid them off', it will not be anxious to raise heavy additional loans for electric tramways ; if it has large gasworks, it will not be readily in- clined to establish a competitive supply of electric light. This is alleged to be one of the causes why until quite recently Great Britain has lagged behind other countries in the application of electricity to transit and lighting. That there is some truth in the charge must be admitted ; but in the last few years there has been a very great improvement, and the large municipalities are now showing much enterprise and initiative. This is an answer also to the further objection that town councils have enough to do as it is; that their members cannot be specialists, and have neither the leisure nor the ability to direct great business enterprises which can be commercially successful only when conducted by experts stimulated by strong personal interest. All experience shows that normally the more work a local authority is given, the more likely it is to attract the services of able and experienced citizens ; energetic and capable men are not inclined to spend their time upon councils which have to do little MUNICIPAL POLICY AND TRADING 137 work of importance. In the large cities there is no lack of ability; a small town has generally less to draw upon, but then the amount which it under- takes is less, and it would be quite reasonable to impose more restrictions upon its enterprises than would be necessary in the case of a more important authority. Efficient management depends upon the existence of a council of men of fair ability and judgment, not necessarily possessed, any more than the ordinary directors of a railway company, of technical ability; and its readiness to get the best expert advisers possible, and to make the fullest use of their services. The fulfilment of these condi- tions, and the stimulus to good work which comes from constant supervision by the citizens, depend upon the existence of a healthy and active civic enthusiasm, and that is most likely to be felt in a municipality where the council has large and varied powers. The possible corruption arising from the existence of a large class of municipal employees is not greater (as the experience of the United States has abundantly shown) than that likely to be caused by the struggle of competing private companies for a municipal monopoly; and for protection against this, and for the assurance of moderation in muni- cipal policy, we must look to the better education nt all classes of the community in the privileges and duties of citizenship. So far, then, the advantages of municipal owner- ship may be said, on the balance, to be at leasl equal to those arising from controlled private enterprise; hut there is a further group of objections to munieipalisation which, under present conditions. 138 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT are serious. The recent developments in the pro- duction of electric light and power have made it possible to supply large areas easily, and once that is the case, it is obviously much cheaper for the supply to be on a large scale and for wide areas. So Ions: as small areas are allowed to have their own electric light works, their own electric tram- ways, when there is any other alternative, so long will there be waste of money, of men, of energy. A private company oan extend its operations over any area in which it can get the right of supply ; it need take no account of administrative boundaries. But local authorities are in a different position; there is much jealousy or, if a less invidious term be desired, rivalry between them; each wishes to do things for itself. But that, as already remarked, involves an enormous amount of waste, and the citizens do not get the services nearly so cheaply as they might do if the whole supply were provided from a common centre. When, for instance, a large city (as is common in the Midlands) is surrounded by a group of urban areas, it is clearly absurd for each to have its own electric lighting plant; all could be supplied more cheaply and better from the city. With other services and other groups of areas the facts are the same. To remedy this, two alternative policies are possible. The first is the establishment of joint boards, but this is not free from difficulty : if the smaller authorities have a minority of representatives, they are likely to be dissatisfied ; and if they are on an equality or in a majority, the large authority will be dissatisfied. The other possibility is to give the council of the MUNICIPAL POLICY AND TRADING 139 central area power to supply the surrounding dis- tricts, as has been done by Parliament in some cases, and in that case to pay to the local authori- ties of these districts some share of the proceeds (unless it does that, it is in the position of an ordinary trader towards the outlying area). But the smaller authorities do not ordinarily welcome such an arrangement, since it entitles an outside authority to interfere with their streets and to control important services within their boundaries. Both of these policies present difficulties which can be over- come only by the exercise of much tact on both sides ; but until our administrative areas are re- organised, one or other of them must be adopted if the municipal supply of public services is not to be much more wasteful than private action. CHAPTER XI LOCAL FINANCE The expenditure for local purposes in England and Wales is met by receipts from four main sources — local taxation, subventions from the central govern- ment, municipal services and enterprises of various kinds, and loans. The proceeds of the first three of these go towards ordinary expenditure, and of them local taxation is much the most important ; in 1902-3 of the total revenue of local authorities (not from loans) more than one- half (actually about 53 per cent.) was derived from local taxes, or, as they are technically called, rates. The following table gives the figures for that year : — Items of Receipt. Amount. £50,382,412 12,782,803 4,454,111 988,266 17,691,001 1,198,908 1,850,845 2,412,144 473,035 2,414,554 Exchequer contributions of all kinds . . Tolls and dues (including harbours and Municipal enterprises (gas, water, electricity, tramways) Cemeteries, baths, museums, asylums, &c. Total ordinary receipts Loans £93,935,417 35,271,367 £129,206,784 Total receipts . . . 140 LOCAL FINANCE 141 Most of the principal items of expenditure by the various groups of authorities have been already noticed in previous chapters ; the total amount spent not out of loans in 1902-3 was £92,882,545, and out of loans £36,086,198— or £128,968,743 in alL The next table shows the way in which this expenditure has increased : — Year. Expenditure. Not Out of Loans. ' Out of Loans. 1884-5 1889-90 1894-5 1899-1900 1902-3 £44,053,904 48,179,573 59,715,074 75,990,248 92,882,545 £9,853,795 7,088,554 13,381,388 24,872,032 36,086,198 The most striking thing in this table is the tre- mendously rapid increase in both columns since the year 1894-5. In this period there is no one object of increased expenditure which can be specially singled out ; the increases have been in practically every department of administration. The following table gives the outstanding debt of all local authori- ties for the same years : — Year. Outstanding Debt. 1-5 l--:t-90 L894 •". 1899 L900 1902-3 £1 73,207.1)68 198,671,312 235,335,049 293,864,224 :57 00 Oi i— I O ^ CM i-i T-< -H|(N -ikjl »W i— i CO i— i F-H 1— 1 IO T* ■* o o o a q Tf CD iO -* i— i i— I r-( 00 CD i — i IT! 1 -*( OS CO £ i— i i—i CD 00 CN OS - CD i— i © t>- 1> i—i as 1 as CO CO 1—1 p'N r~ CD m CD CD o> 1— 1 1—1 1— 1 =♦* r* O O © -* CO 1—1 ■* eo co o o o CD CD CO os cs oj —I i— i OJ CD CD 1 CO oo 1-1 GO* CO CO OS 1—1 i-H ,— 1 ^ i-i o o H« -(Hi -Wi CO CO CO ^ co co o o o O CD 00 CM Oi CO 1— 1 Oi io co as H •,3 8 a • o co a a -a o co c ■^ S g • o LOCAL FINANCE 143 The increases shown in these tables are certainly serious, the more so as they show no sign of slacken- ing. But it must be borne in mind that the re- sponsibility for the growth of expenditure does not rest entirely, or even chiefly, with the local authorities themselves. Much of it is due to the heightened standards of educational and poor law administra- tion imposed upon them by Parliament or central departments; much more is due to the growing regard for national health, and the demand from all classes for fresh services to be rendered to them by the state ; and, so far as the debt is concerned, a very large part of it, as will be seen later, has been incurred for enterprises of an industrial nature which have been so demanded from the authorities by the citizens, and are, or ultimately will be, financially remunerative. But the chief fact is that local authorities have in the main not so much created as followed the public demand for services from them ; the citizens may have been ill advised in thuir demands, but that is another matter. Only a strong and persistent expression of public opinion can be an effective check on further increases in expenditure, though some improvements may be made in the machinery of control. I. — Local Rates The difference between a tax and a rate is now little more than historical. The tax was a com- pulsory payment made by particular individuals on particular occasions, the taxing authority having 144 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT only a general, and sometimes very vague, idea as to the probable amount of the proceeds; whilst in the case of the rate the amount to be obtained was first determined, and the payment of it then divided between the various persons liable in accordance with some definite scale. This is the distinction between the impots de quotiU and impots de re- partition in France ; but the development of finan- cial skill, enabling the proceeds of a tax to be determined beforehand with very great exactitude, has rendered this particular distinction of small importance. Still the difference in term in this country is useful as marking a difference in kind; the rate differs from the tax in that it is the custo- mary form of local taxation, and that it is "paid only in respect of certain kinds of property, and levied from the occupiers and not the owners of that property." The basis of all English local taxation is the poor rate, which was established in 1601, but has been considerably modified in the three centuries of its history. Its present form dates from the Parochial Assessments Act of 1836, which confirmed the prin- ciple that the poor rate must be made " upon an estimate of the net annual value of the several hereditaments rated thereunto, i.e. of the rent at which the same might reasonably be expected to let from year to year " free of all usual tenants' charges, and making allowance for repairs. " Rate- able hereditaments " include land and buildings, railways, canals, water-works, gas-works, mines, quarries, sporting rights, tithos and tithe rent LOCAL FINANCE 145 charges. So that the poor rate has corne to be a rate on the annual value of the real property in each parish, levied not on the owner, but on the occupier ; and the rent is regarded as the measure of the annual value of the property, subject for assessment purposes to deductions according to a sliding scale for tenants' charges, &c. Local taxation is in theory proportional to the benefit received, whilst national taxation is in the main according to ability; and the rent which a man is willing to pay is taken as an index of the benefit he derives from residence in a particular locality. The economic causes which have brought about the influx of population into the towns, and the expenditure of local authorities on sanitation, lighting and police, have enhanced the value of both land and houses to the owners by substantially increasing rents, but the occupiers still normally bear the whole burden of the local rates. In the case of houses of small rental, especially in districts where the population is of the poorer class and householders change frequently, the owner commonly compounds with the local rating authority for the rates due on his houses (a reduction being allowed to him), or pays them without compounding, and includes as much of them as possible in the rents which he obtains from his tenants. A large part of the money raised by what is called the poor rate is spent on services uncon- nected with the relief of the poor; it is collected on the same basis and by the same machinery simply :is a matter <>f convenience. The following table gives the chief authorities, the rates levied K 146 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT by them, and the principal purposes for which they are used. Authority. Guardians and Overseers. CountyCouncil. Town Councils. Do. Do. Urban District Council. Do. Rural District Council. Do. Parisli Council or Meeting. Eate. Poor Rate. County Rate (part of Poor Rate). Borough Rate, and in some cases Watch Rate (both some- times part of Poor Rate). General District Rate. Special Rates under Local Acts. General District Rate. Special Rates under Local Acts. Poor Rate. Special Expenses Rate. Poor Rate. Purpose. Relief of Poor and minor services. Police, Main Roads, Asylums, Educa- tion. Municipal Services, Police and Asylums in some cases; Edu- cation. Roads, Sanitation, &c. Improvements, &c. Roads, Sanitation, &c. Improvements, &c. Highways and Gene- ral Expenses. Sewerage and Water Supply. General Purposes. Of these rates, the county rate is the result of an apportionment between the parishes of the expenses of county administration, and for the purposes of this apportionment a county council may make LOCAL FINANCE 147 its own assessment of the parishes, which may differ from that made by the overseers ; but the amount required from each parish is raised in it by the poor rate valuation. The county rate may be " general " or " special " ; in the latter case it is limited to a part of the county, and is for special services rendered in that part. The borough rate is levied by the town councils on the poor rate basis. The general district rate is somewhat different, since agricultural land, railways, and canals, and tithes and tithe rent charges are assessed at only one- quarter of their valuation for the poor rate ; and the same reduction is made in connection with the special expenses rate in rural districts. There are also a number of special rates, such as private improvement rates levied by various authorities under the Public Health Act, 1875, and miscellaneous rates under Private Acts or for special purposes (such as public libraries). The assessment and valuation list of each parish is made by the overseers, who present it to the assessment committee of the board of guardians of the union of which the parish forms part. That committee hears objections made to the assessments within four weeks, and may in consequence amend the list, or it may make alterations on its own initiative. Once the list is settled, it is the legal basis for the poor rate, and the other rates made on the same basis. Appeal lies from the decisions of tin- committee to Quarter Sessions, and from thence to tip- High Court of Justice. The general district rat'' is Leviable by the urban district authorities directly, if they think fit; but this is commonly, and 148 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT the other rates always, levied by means of precepts addressed to the overseers of each parish requiring them to raise the indicated sums. In London the functions of the overseers have been transferred to the metropolitan borough councils, who raise the money by a " general rate." In order to attempt to equalise somewhat the burden of local taxation in the different parts of London an Act of Parliament, in 1894, directed that a uniform rate of sixpence in the pound on the rateable value should be levied all over London, and the proceeds distributed between the (present) boroughs according to population. An extension of this system on a sounder basis is one of the most desirable reforms in local taxation, since much of the expenditure which now presses very heavily upon particular localities is incurred for purposes (such as public health) which are " national," and would be local only if the districts could be com- pletely shut off one from another. II. — Subventions from the Central Government The most characteristic feature of English local finance at the present day is the system of grants by the central government, which are more developed here than in any other country. Apart from the very large grants towards the cost of national ele- mentary education, the chief aid to the localities is given by means of the Local Taxation Account and the Agricultural Kates Grant. The latter may be dismissed briefly ; the history of state subventions to local authorities in the nineteenth century is the history of the efforts of the landowners and farmers LOCAL FINANCE 149 to shift on to the general taxpayer their part of the local rates. The success of this effort culminated in the Act of 1896, which directed the annual payment by the central Exchequer towards the relief of the rates upon agricultural land of a sum equal to one- half the rates so levied in 1895-6. The sum so paid to local authorities by the Exchequer was £1,328,019 in 1902-3. The Local Taxation Account is a much more complicated matter ; it is a result of the re- arrangement made in 1888 of a number of grants which had grown up in the preceding half-century. Until 1888 these were voted annually by Parliament, and amounted to about £2,600,000 ; but in that year the method of annual votes was discontinued, and instead it was directed that the whole of the proceeds of certain excise duties, more than equal in amount to the discontinued grants, should be handed over annually to the local authorities ; and in addition they were given one-half of the yield of the probate (now the estate) duty, whatever that might be. They were also given in 1890 the proceeds of certain sur- taxes on beer and spirits (commonly called the "whisky money"). These last two items were divided between the component parts of the United Kingdom in the proportion of 80 per cent, to England and Wales, 11 per cent, to Scotland, and 9 per cent, to Ireland. All these sums are paid first into the Local Taxation Account, which therefore receives: — (a.) The proceeds of the "local taxation licences " — Eor the sale of wine, spirits, beer, tobacco, and game; for auctioneers, house-agents, pawn- brokers; for dogs, guns, armorial bearings, carriages, dec. 150 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT These produced over £3,600,000 in 1902-3. (b.) 80 % of one-half of that portion of the estate duty which is derived from personalty (amounting in 1902-3 to about £2,200,000). But from this there is deducted a sum of £120,000 under the Tithe Rent Charge (Rates) Act 1899, which did for the owners of tithe rent charges what the Act of 1896 had done for the occupiers of agricultural land. This amount is deducted by the Commissioners of Inland Revenue from the proceeds of the estate duty due to local authorities before they are paid into the Local Taxation Account. (c.) 80 % of the beer (6d. a barrel) and spirits (3d. a gallon) surtaxes ; this amounted to about £1,200,000 in 1902-3. From this, however, there is deducted by the Treasury the sum of £300,000, which is paid directly to the police pension funds (half to London, half to the rest of the country), and also a vari- able sum for certain expenditure under the Diseases of Animal Acts from the estate duty. In all there was paid over to councils of the administrative counties and county boroughs, and to the Metropolitan Police in 1902-3, the sum of £6,631,782 (this includes a small sum of £12,737 paid directly by the Treasury to revising barristers on behalf of certain councils, and a sum of £782,688 paid similarly to the authorities of the Metropolitan Police ; but both these sums are in- cluded in the distribution arrangement now to be described). The council of each administrative county and LOCAL FINANCE 151 county borough receives the proceeds of the licence duties collected within its area ; the amounts of the estate duty and " whisky money " available are divided between the counties in proportion to the amounts of the grants which they received in 1887-8 (the adjustment between the administrative counties and the county boroughs was made by agreement or by arbitration). But on the sums so received there are a number of permanent charges. Out of their shares of the licence and estate duties the councils of counties and county boroughs must pay to the boards of guardians within their areas the fees of pauper children attending elementary schools, the salaries of teachers in poor law schools, an amount equal to salaries, superannuation, and allowances in 1887-8 of union officers outside London and the salaries of poor law medical officers in London, part of the remuneration of registrars, certain payments to public vaccinators, and four shillings per head per week for the maintenance of pauper lunatics. The county councils must pay to town and district councils half the salaries of medical officers of health and sanitary inspectors approved by the Local Government Board, the contribution towards the maintenance of lunatics, and half the cost of police pay and clothing in those boroughs which have a separate force. Each county council and county borough council -must transfer from its Exchequer Contribution Account to other accounts half the cost of police pay and clothing, contributions for lunatics chargeable not to individual parishes but to the counties or county boroughs, half the salaries of medical officers of health and sanitary inspectors, 152 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT and some other small miscellaneous payments. From the "whisky money" county councils con- tribute a small proportion to non- county boroughs for technical education. The surplus of both groups of receipts are available for general purposes, but practically the whole of the " whisky money " has been used, as was recommended but not directed, for technical education. The following table gives the figures of the Exchequer Contribution Account for the year 1902-3 :— Receipts (1.) Estate duty ^ £5 702 986 (2.) Local taxation licences . . . J (3.) Surplus of "whisky money" after deduction of contribution to police pension funds .... 897,402 (4. ) Miscellaneous receipts (adjustments, &c.) 18,657 (5.) For revising barristers from (1.), (2.) and (3.) .... 12,737 Total £6,631,782 Payments (1.) Contributions by county and county borough councils to boards of guardians £1,822,300 (2.) Contributions by county councils to town and district councils . . 323,830 (3.) Miscellaneous payments (adjust- ments, &c.) .... 14,676 Carry forward £2,160,806 LOCAL FINANCE 153 Brought forward £2,160,806 (4.) Half cost of Metropolitan Police (London and other counties) . 782,688 (5.) Transfers by county and county borough councils to other ac- counts — Technical education . £771,388 Half police pay and clothing Medical officers and 1,104,622 inspectors Other payments 7,696 18,105 Surplus — To general account 1,814,799 3,716,610 12,737 (6.) Payment by Treasury barristers . to revising Total £6.672,841 The principle of the Exchequer Contribution Account — the equalisation of burdens by relieving local rates out of national taxation — is sound enough, but the present arrangement is unsatisfactory. As to the grants as a whole, there is the objection that they do not come up for annual review by Parlia- ment, and that, except in the case of the police grant, and to some extent the payments to medical officers and sanitary inspectors, there is no guarantee for efficiency in the use of the grants. It' the Home Secretary should withhold his <■■ rtificate tor a count y or county borough police force, the council would have to repay the Exchequer from its Exchequer Contribution Account a sum equal bo half the cos! 154 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT of paying and clothing its police ; if the certificate is withheld from a non-county borough force, then the contributing county does not pay the amount due to the borough, but can make use of it for its own purposes. The distribution between the counties, and again between these and the county boroughs, is on a decidedly unsatisfactory basis, and further, a county council has to contribute half the salaries of all medical officers and sanitary inspectors ap- pointed by sanitary authorities within its area, and half the cost of police pay and clothing in non- county boroughs, but has no control whatever over expenditure for either of these matters. So a non- county borough may suddenly spend lavishly on its police force, and then demand half the amount from the county council; the latter must pay, and therefore the extravagance of the non-county borough may mean that the county council has less to spend for its own purposes. Finally, so far as counties and county boroughs are concerned, they get no ad- vantage by appointing their medical officers and inspectors under the Local Government Board regu- lations, since the payment of half the salaries of these officers from the Exchequer Contribution Account is a mere piece of bookkeeping. There is a growing feeling that the system of grants-in-aid should be extended, in order to equalise somewhat the burdens which press so heavily upon the poorer localities for services which are of national importance. The Royal Commission on Local Taxation reported in 1901 in favour of an increase of the grants for a number of poor law purposes and for police, and of a new grant LOCAL FINANCE 155 for main roads ; and, though the amount contributed from the central Exchequer towards education is already very large, it is evident that it will be neces- sary to give still more aid to the local authorities for this purpose. But if the grants are to be ex- tended, it is essential that the whole arrangement should be completely revised, and it is desirable that the annual vote, and therefore review, of the amounts by Parliament should be restored, and that there should be some sort of security for their efficient use. CHAPTER XII LOCAL FINANCE— (continued) III. — Proceeds of Municipal Property and Services The total receipts of local authorities in the year 1902-3 from public services of all kinds (including water, gas, and electricity supply, tramways, markets, harbours, bridges and ferries, baths and washhouses, cemeteries, hospitals, asylums, fire brigades, libraries, sewage farms, and slaughter- houses) were about £22,500,000. Of course in many of these cases the receipts go only a very little way towards meeting the expenditure : this is especially so, for example, with asylums and sewage disposal works. The group of undertakings which can fairly be regarded as " remunerative," i.e. likely to yield an actual profit, is very small ; we can include in it only waterworks (though for some of these a profit is impossible), gasworks, electricity works, tramways, markets, harbours, docks and piers, and a few miscellanea. On these, the average annual profit to the local authorities for the four years ending March 1902 (according to the latest Local Government Board report on reproductive under- 156 LOCAL FINANCE 157 takings) was £593,985, after payment of interest on borrowed capital and contribution to sinking- funds. The vexed questions connected with the finance of " municipal trading " have been discussed in a previous chapter : all that is necessary here is to point out that these particular services as a whole do pay their way and yield a small surplus, whilst in a number of particular cases a substantial sum is available from them for the relief of rates. It should be added that the rents of corporate property, which in the case of some municipalities is considerable, yielded about £2,500,000. IV. — Local Loans It has already been stated that the total outstand- ing debt of our local authorities in March 1903 was about 371 million pounds. Of this rather more than one-half has been incurred for services which are classed as reproductive in the Local Government Board return already mentioned (which includes cemeteries and baths and washhouses). The chief separate items are : — W.-.1' i works Harbours, &c. ( tasworks Electric Lighting Tramways Markets Housing £63,130,859 30,743,881 23,110,919 18,550,120 17,413,797 7,663,708 7,176,510 158 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT In the debt for non-reproductive undertakings, the principal items were: — Highways, &c. Schools Sewerage Relief of the Poor Asylums Parks, &c. . Public Buildings, &c. Hospitals £43,918,732 35,228,374 34,652,048 12,284,022 9,151,721 7,585,912 6,726,249 5,914,620 The amount borrowed in 1902-3 was about thirty- six millions. Local authorities may be empowered to borrow money either under clauses in general Acts, or by Private Acts for special purposes. In the former case (as, for instance, in the Municipal Corporations Act, the Education Act, and the Public Health Acts), it is customary for loans to be autho- rised generally, and the maximum period for re- payment specified ; but for each particular loan and its terms, the approval of the government department specially interested is necessary. This confirmation is now also required, under the standing orders of Parliament, for loans under Private Acts, unless estimates showing the pro- posed application of the money are set forth in the Act itself. The Local Loans Act, 1875, was intended to indicate certain modes of borrowing which local authorities might employ. Usually one of two methods is used. Local authorities may have recourse to 'the Public Works Loan Commis- sioners, who for certain purposes may advance money from funds which they obtain either from LOCAL FINANCE 159 the National Debt Commissioners or by the issue of local loans stock . But many of the larger muni- cipal boroughs early secured under special Acts the right of raising money by the issue of stock of their own, subject to various conditions ; the power to do so was given to all county councils in 1888 ; and now, under the Public Health Act of 1890, any urban authority can raise loans in this way (for public health purposes), if it can get the approval of the Local Government Board by Provisional Order. In London the metropolitan boroughs can raise loans only by permission of the County Council, subject to appeal to the Local Government Board ; and the Council lends the money. Parish councils in the same way borrow from their county authority. The Control of Local Finance The limitations which have been imposed upon both the form and extent of the financial operations of local authorities, and the forms of the control exercised by the central departments, are numerous and varied. They may, however, be classified under four heads. (1.) Methods of the conduct of financial business. — County councils and the councils of metropolitan boroughs are required to appoint finance committees with special duties. Thus the Act of 1888 directs that " every county council shall from time to time appoint a finance committee for regulating and con- trolling the finance of the county ; and an order for 160 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT the payment of a sum out of the county fund, whether on account of capital or income, shall not be made by a county council except in pursuance of a re- solution of the council passed on the recommenda- tion of the finance committee, and any costs, debts, or liability exceeding fifty pounds shall not be in- curred except upon a resolution of the council passed on an estimate submitted by the finance committee." A similar arrangement is imposed on London borough councils by the London Govern- ment Act, 1899 ; and it has been voluntarily adopted by a number of other authorities. With this we may couple (since it is part of the work of the finance committee) the requirement for county councils of an elaborate budget to be prepared at the beginning of each financial year — a method voluntarily employed by many other councils. Further, in most cases where it is proposed to promote a private Bill in Parliament a special meeting of the council, with particular notice, is required for its authorisation. And in the munici- pal boroughs the approval of the ratepayers is re- quired — technically for the expenditure of money on the promotion of the Bill, but actually for the proposals which it contains, and therefore for the expenditure which it involves. This is the only case in this country of the referendum on the pro- posals of the town councils, which is very commonly used in America ; in England it is little more than a form, but there are sometimes cases (as at Birming- ham a few years ago) where the citizens have em- phatically refused to allow their council to proceed with a Bill. Finally there are requirements, either LOCAL FINANCE 101 as to the form in which the accounts shall be kept (as with the boards of guardians), or as to the forms of summaries to be furnished to the Local Govern- ment Board — a regulation which applies to all local authorities. (2.) The statutory limitation of rates and debt. — The only instance of the legal restriction of rates for general purposes is furnished by the parish councils, which may not levy rates (exclusive of those under the adoptive Acts) of more than 3d. in the pound without the consent of a parish meeting ; and not even then may they exceed 6d. in the pound. But examples of this limitation for special purposes are much more common. So under the Education Act of 1902, local education authorities may not levy a rate exceeding 2d. in the pound for the purposes of higher education without the consent of the Local Government Board. In a rural parish the highway rate may not exceed 2s. 6d. in the pound without the consent of four-fifths of the voters. In other cases the restriction is more complete ; so the Public Libraries Act, 1892, limits the rate leviable under it to Id. in the pound — a limitation which has been removed in a few cases, but only by clauses in private Acts. The rates levied for the purposes of the Museums and Gymnasiums Act, 1891, may not exceed £d. in the pound for each purpose. There are several instances also of the limitation of debt, both for general and special purposes. Tims a board of guardians may borrow money only up to one-fourth of the rateable value of their union, or up to ono-half by Provisional Order; county councils for general administration cannot, borrow i. 162 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT beyond one-tenth of the rateable value of their areas except under Provisional Orders or Acts of Parliament; and the amounts borrowed by sanitary authorities under the Public Health Acts may not exceed one year's assessable value of their districts, except by approval of the Local Government Board after local enquiry, and then they may not go be- yond two years' value. These limitations are some- times removed for special matters; thus the sums borrowed by county councils under the Allotments Acts, and by sanitary authorities for housing schemes, are not to be included in the calculation of the debt subject to these restrictions. (3.) Legislative or departmental approval of loans. — We have already seen that particular ap- plications of borrowing powers under general Acts commonly need the approval of a government de- partment. The Parliamentary Committee on Local Loans reported in 1902 that "each general statute which confers borrowing powers upon local authori- ties specifies a maximum period for the repayment of loans raised under such powers. Within the limits thus established a discretion is, in English and Irish Acts, as a rule, left to the government department specially concerned with the matter for which the loan is required, to decide the exact term for the redemption of each particular loan. . . . It is obvious that the discretion left to the govern- ment departments which fix the actual period for the repayment of each loan is a very wide one. . . . The Local Government Board, being charged with the general supervision of local finance, takes into its consideration in fixing the period for redemp- LOCAL FINANCE 163 tion, not only the probable useful life of each part of an undertaking for which a loan is desired, but also the probable future condition of localities with regard to debt, in order that the ratepayers of the future may not be unduly burdened, and so un- able to discharge efficiently the duties that are likely to come upon them." This last sentence seems to describe rather the professed ideal of the Board than its actual accomplishment. The maximum period allowed by Parliament is usually sixty years (for housing it is now eighty years), but the Board seldom allows the full period. The same approval is sometimes required for loans under local Acts. In all cases the department may hold a local enquiry, hear evidence, and in authorising the loan desired it may impose whatever conditions it thinks expedient. But a very large amount — probably the greater part — of local indebtedness is incurred not under this departmental control at all, but under Local Acts which gave power to the authorities promoting them to borrow definite sums for definite purposes. For the larger cities have usually found it more con- venient to borrow in this way — since Private Acts until comparatively lately could be got through Parliament without undergoing a very close scrutiny — than under an order of a government department granted after enquiry; and, moreover, they can usually get longer period for the repayment of loans. There is no doubt that until recently Parlia- ment was much too lax in its treatment of Private Acts: the committee already quoted professed their inability " to discover any general principlo by which the periods allowed by 17 Coniii med and not remitted . . . G3 Reversed . . . . . . . f)'2 I >e;ilt with itecording to merits . . 20 In this connection it should be noted that the Local Government Board 1ms power under the Local 166 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT Authorities' Expenses Act, 1887, to authorise ex- penditure by local bodies which otherwise would be disallowed by the auditors. In 1903-4, 2615 appli- cations for such authorisation were granted, and 505 refused. The audit is an extremely powerful means of control, but it has two defects. The recent school board cases have shown that the auditors may continue for years to pass items which are illegal, unless their attention is specially drawn to them. And the audit (if, as is commonly the case, the surcharges are remitted) does not prevent illegal expenditure ; it only stops its recurrence. The accounts of municipal corporations are ex- empted from the Board audit, and are examined by three auditors, of whom one is appointed by the mayor from the members of the town council, and the other two are elected burgesses. Their powers are small ; they cannot disallow or surcharge ; they can only draw attention to doubtful items. The municipalities have always been opposed to the extension of the Board audit to their own financial operations, and they objected strongly but without success to this in the case of their education ac- counts. This is partly because they desire to main- tain their independence of departmental control as completely as possible, and partly because in their view the auditors are apt to adopt too narrow an interpretation of the law, and thereby to hinder desirable experiments and developments. The present situation of local finance, the persistent, and in many instances unavoidable, increase of the rates and the growth of local indebtedness calls for LOCAL FINANCE 167 the most careful consideration. But it is not easy to see what substantial reforms can be made. The nationalisation of some of what are now local burdens will do something to relieve the poorer districts, which are also those where now the local burdens are greatest; the taxation of site values may be of some small use, but will need very great care if inequity and ineffectiveness are to be avoided ; and an extension, or a more systematic use, of the central control may furnish a more effective check than exists at present. But the ultimate control, and therefore the responsibility, rests in each locality with the ratepayers themselves ; and until they rouse themselves to impress on their representatives the need for economy, and of acquiescence in a slower rate of municipal development, they cannot expect any large improvement in the condition of local finance. CHAPTER XIII LOCAL AUTHORITIES AND (I.) THE LEGISLATURE, (II.) THE COURTS OF JUSTICE I. — The Legislature Powers may be conferred by the legislature on local authorities in either one of two ways. The legislature may authorise the local administrative bodies to do all things not expressly forbidden, though in certain cases the approval of a central authority may be required. This is the plan adopted in Germany, where the town authorities are vaguely empowered to do anything which may be thought to promote civic well-being; but for any specific application of this general power administrative approval is requisite. Or, alternatively, the legis- lature may enumerate the powers which it intends to be exercised by the local authorities which it creates, and other specified powers may be bestowed on them by the legislature in dealing with particular matters such as public health or housing ; this is the method with which we are familiar in England. But it is obvious that a particular local authority may desire to do things which it is not authorised to do either by its constituent Act or by subsequent general legislation. In such a case it must have 168 THE LEGISLATURE 169 recourse to Parliament ; and the result on the one hand of the principle adopted in England, that local authorities have only such legal powers and duties as have been handed over to them by the express provisions of statutory enactments, and on the other hand of the activity and enterprise of the various authorities, and especially of the munici- palities, has been the growth of a great system of Private Bill legislation. This is peculiar to Great Britain, and it is of the utmost importance because it means that in the main the development of the work of our local authorities is controlled by Parlia- ment, and not by bureaucratic central departments. English local authorities, then, exercise powers enumerated in (i.) General Acts, (ii.) Adoptive Acts, which are a special class of General Acts, and (iii.) Private Acts. The distinction between public and private legislation is thus denned by Sir Courtenay Ilbert : — " A Public Bill is introduced as a measure of public policy, in which the whole com- munity is interested, and originates on the motion of some member of the House in which the Bill is introduced. A Private Bill is a measure for the interest of some person, or class of persons, whether an individual, a corporation, or the inhabitants of a county, town, parish, or other locality, and origi- nates on the petition of the person or persons interested. The object of a Private Bill is, in fact, to obtain a privUegiv/m, that is to say, an exemption from the general law, or provision for something which cannot be obtained by means of a general law whether that general law is contained in a statute or is common law." A modification and 170 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT simplification of Private Bill legislation is the system of (iv.) Provisional Orders. (i.) General Acts. — Constituent Acts commonly contain an enumeration of the powers intended to be exercised by the local authorities which they establish. This is the case, for instance, with the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, and the Local Government Acts of 1888 and 1894. The Municipal Corporations Act of 1835 was to some extent an exception, since it made no such attempt to draw up a complete list of powers for the municipalities, but contemplated their free use of Private Bill legislation ; whilst the powers of the poor law authorities were completely defined in 1834, and the Act of 1888 withheld from the new county councils the power to promote legislation. Apart from the various powers conferred by these constituent Acts, there are others conferred on all authorities of any particular class or classes by General Acts dealing with one special subject or group of subjects of administration. Such, for ex- ample, are the powers given to local authorities by many of the Public Health Acts, the Lunacy Act, 1890, the Diseases of Animals Act, 1894, and the Educa- tion Act, 1902. A slight modification of this method is the power given to a central department to direct local authorities to do certain things specified in a General Act, if it should think necessary. In the case of a number of powers and duties under General Acts, both constituent and other, the legislature has not only defined them, but has laid down in the Act itself the manner in which they are to be exercised or discharged by the local THE LEGISLATURE 171 authorities. Thus the Public Health Act, 1875, gave directions as to the officers to be appointed, the frequency of meetings, and the conduct of business ; for special services a device frequently employed is the requirement that a special com- mittee be appointed whose relation to the council is regulated in the Act. The most recent example of this is the statutory committee of the local education authority under the Act of 1902. In other cases, where such minute regulations are not laid down by Parliament, it often empowers a government department to make such regulations ; the most striking instance of this is furnished by the Local Government Board in matters of poor law administration. (ii.) Adoptive Acts. — These are enactments con- ferring on all or specified classes of local authorities particular powers which they become entitled to exercise either by merely passing, usually in a special manner, a resolution formally " adopting " the Act, or by this process followed by departmental approval. The Adoptive Acts are very numerous ; instances are the Tramways Act, 1870, the Light Railways Act, 189G, the Baths and Washhouscs Acts, 1846-1882, the Burial Acts, 1852-1885, and the Public Libraries Act, 1892. In some cases parts of Acts are adoptive, such as Part III. of the Housing of the Working Classes Acts, 1890. And sometimes permissive and compulsory clauses are intermingled ; a conspicuous example is the Public Health Act, 1875, where clauses with "any authority shall" and "any authority may" alternate in a very re- markable fashion. 172 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT (iii.) Private Acts. — These we must examine in greater detail, since they have been the chief means of widening the sphere of the activity of local authorities, and of giving free play to their initiative, and also because Private Bill procedure is an in- teresting and somewhat curious part of our legis- lative machinery. Up to 1903, of all local bodies, only municipal and urban district councils and the London County Council could promote Private Bills ; but in that year the right was extended to county councils. But there are certain differences. The Borough Funds Act, 1872, authorised municipal corporations and " other governing authorities " (which meant sanitary authorities, and within these probably only urban district councils) to promote or oppose any local Bill, and to spend money out of the rates for that purpose, on condition that a resolution to that effect be passed by the council with special formalities, that the resolution be approved by a meeting of ratepayers and property owners, and that the consent of the Local Government Board to the introduction of the Bill be obtained. The Act was amended in 1903, by the abolition of the necessity of a meeting to approve expenditure in- curred in opposing Bills, and of the system of voting whereby one person might have as many as six votes. In most cases this meeting of rate- payers is a mere form, but it may be important if there is real opposition in the district to the Bill which the council is promoting. One would suppose that a great town council would be suffi- ciently acquainted with the feeling amongst the THE LEGISLATURE 173 citizens not to promote a Bill to which any large body of them were opposed or indifferent ; but that this is not always the case is shown by the recent curious instance of Birmingham, where at the poll on a general powers Bill, supported by the great majority of the council, and vigorously discussed in the town for some time, only some 8 per cent, of those qualified took the trouble to vote, and the Bill was summarily disapproved by them. Under the amending Act of 1903 provision is made for the disapproval of particular clauses in a Bill deal- ing with a number of separate matters, without the whole Bill thereby being abandoned. Under the previous law the rejection of a part of such a Bill could be obtained only by the rejection of the whole. The Local Government Board withholds its consent usually only if the objects aimed at by a Bill might be obtained in other ways, by Provi- sional Order or under existing general statutes. All Bills must be deposited by a certain date before the commencement of the Parliamentary session, and copies sent to all the departments interested in the subject-matter. The Bills are then read by official examiners, to see that they comply with the standing orders fixed by each House. These are concerned partly with procedure, partly with clauses which must be included in each Bill of a particular class. They are then read by the Lord Chairman of Committees in tho House of Lords, and tho Chairman of Committees in the Commons; any objection on tho part of the par- liamentary or departmental officials to particular clauses or to principles involved arc noted, and 174 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT discussed with the promoters, who are usually com- pelled to give way. The Lord Chairman, who specially gives his attention to this matter (since his colleague in the other House has more work to do in connection with meetings of the House), can practically disallow clauses by informing the promoters that unless the obnoxious clause is with- drawn he will decline to move the next stage of the Bill in the Lords, and the Lords generally follow his guidance in dealing with the readings of Private Bills. The Bills are then divided between the two Houses, for convenience. They then follow the ordinary legislative course, except at the committee stage. Unopposed Bills, after first and second readings, go in the Lords to a committee consisting of the Lord Chairman alone ; in the Commons they go to a committee composed of the Chairman and two other members. For opposed Bills the readings in both Houses are generally formal, though opposition some- times takes place in the Commons ; the real conflict is before the select committees, which consist in the Lower House of four members, and of five in the Upper House. Before a committee counsel and witnesses may be heard on both sides; and a com- mittee may reject the whole of a Bill, usually by finding the preamble "not proven," or require any amendments. No matter which House deals first with a Bill, the committee in the other has a free hand; but double fights are not very common. There are, however, some differences of importance between the committees of the two Houses. Each Lords' committee decides for itself as to what THE LEGISLATURE 175 opponents it will hear ; in the Commons there is a special Court of Referees for the purpose. The government departments are required to report on all Bills touching matters with which they are con- cerned in any way ; the Lords' committees are not bound to take any notice of these reports, whilst committees of the Commons are directed by the Standing Orders to inform the House " whether any report from any government department relative to the Bill has been referred to the committee ; and in what manner the recommendations in the report have been dealt with." It should be noted also that though the House as a whole interferes little with a Private Bill as a rule, it may pass an " instruction " to a committee on any Bill. As to the subject-matter of a Private Bill, in addi- tion to the limitations already mentioned as imposed by the Local Government Board, it is a rule that no Bill imposing duties on a government department can be introduced as a Private Bill ; and the Lord Chairman and his colleague may refuse to allow any Bill to go forward which in their judgment is so important that it ought to be treated as a Public Bill. Finally, in order to secure something like uniformity, all Bills containing clauses dealing with sanitation or police go to a special standing com- mittee. The system of Private Bill legislation has been of very groat value ; but it is costly, slow, and some- what clumsy. The main objections to it are the great expense and trouble involved when a local authority has to secure highly paid counsel and sometimes oxport witnesses, and to bring its local 170 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT witnesses up to Westminster and occasionally keep them there for a considerable time ; and the amount of the time of members of Parliament which it takes up. The House of Commons, particularly, could usefully devote to imperial and national matters much of the time now devoted to local affairs ; and the special arrangements made for Scotland by the Private Legislation Procedure (Scotland) Act, 1899, which will be described in the next section, indicates one way in which the reform might be made. (iv.) Provisional Orders. — These may be described as orders issued by government departments en- abling local authorities to do in particular instances acts which Parliament has approved in principle; but they do not come into force until they have been incorporated in a Provisional Orders Confirma- tion Bill, and that has been duly passed by Par- liament. The system was commenced in 1845, and has been greatly extended in recent years. Orders are granted by the Board of Trade for the establishment of docks and quays, gas and water works, tramways, and electric light and power works; by the Local Government Board for a number of purposes, including changes of boun- daries ; and by various other departments — most of these can also issue Provisional Orders dealing with various matters on their own initiative (within limits laid down by Parliament). The orders are granted after such enquiry as the department deems necessary, and there is no appeal against its refusal of an order. On the other hand, the grant of an order may be challenged further, by opposition to the Confirmation Bill in which it is included : THE LEGISLATURE 177 in that case the Bill goes to a Select Committee, which however almost invariably approves the de- cision of the Local Government Board. The net result of the system of Provisional Orders is to substitute a departmental for a parliamentary en- quiry, and to get rid of the expense of Private Bill procedure. Under the Act of 1899 all private legislation for Scotland proceeds by Provisional Order, unless in the opinion of the parliamentary authorities a pro- posal does not relate wholly to Scotland, or raises special questions of policy or principle, or is of unusual magnitude — in these cases the ordinary procedure by Private Bill must be adopted. A draft order is presented by the applicants ; if all the required conditions are fulfilled, and there is no opposition, then the Secretary for Scotland grants the order. If there is opposition, it goes to a com- mittee drawn from a body of commissioners, con- sisting of members of the two Houses and twenty other persons " qualified by experience of affairs " appointed by the two parliamentary Chairmen in conjunction with the Secretary for Scotland. Non- parliamentary commissioners are to be appointed to hold an enquiry only if the committee cannot be made up from the members of Parliament ; but inasmuch as each enquiry is to be held in Scotland at a place selected " with due regard to the subject- matter of the proposed order and the locality to which it relates," it is evident that the non-parlia- mentary members are likely to be largely employed, On the report of the committee, the Secretary for Scotland decides; and if he issues the Provisional M 178 ENGLTSH LOCAL GOVERNMENT Order it follows the ordinary course. The great merits of the plan are its quickness, cheapness (since the enquiry is not held in London), and the re- duction of the amount of work thrown on Parlia- ment, and it appears to give general satisfaction ; whilst it has the great advantage over the English Provisional Order system that it does not leave the enquiry and decision solely to departmental officials. II. — The Courts of Justice Reference has been made several times in the preceding chapters to the fact that, except in rare cases, the central departments have no means of compelling, by administrative methods, obedience to the law on the part of the local authorities; all they can do is to request the aid of the courts of justice. Moreover, when a central department issues an order to a local authority, or gives a de- cision which involves an interpretation of the law, the local administrators are by no means bound to accept that order or interpretation as binding ; they also can appeal to the courts. These are then the sole authorities which can compel the local authorities to obey the law ; and at the same time they are a protection to the local^ councils against arbitrary acts on the part of the central administration. Further, in the event of a dispute arising 1 between the citizen and the local autho- rities, recourse must be had to the same courts and the same processes as if it were a dispute between two private citizens. It remains for us THE COURTS OF JUSTICE 170 then to notice the chief processes employed in these various cases. But first there is one matter of very great import- ance. The courts whose aid is invoked in all these instances are the ordinarv courts of the land, consti- tuted in the ordinary way and working by the ordinary legal processes. In most continental countries, on the other hand, questions arising between central and local authorities, or between one local authority and another, or between a local authority and a citizen, are decided by special tribunals constituted in a particular way and dealing with what is known as " administrative law." The difference in the constitu- tion of local authorities abroad and our own is so great that it is impossible to give in this place any intelligible explanation of the effect of this arrange- ment on the relations between the central and local authorities; but its effect on the relation of the citizen to the authority can be indicated briefly. In general terms, for example, the rule of administra- tive law in France is that in the event of a dispute between a citizen and an official arising out of an act done by the latter wrongly in the discharge of what he believed to be his duty, or in obedience to orders, the dispute is determined by a special court Avhich consists partly of lawyers and partly of officials; and though. the court may declare the act or order invalid, the citizen cannot recover from the official any compensation for any damage which lie may have suffered; and the official responsible is liable to no penalty except that which bis administrative superiors may choose to inflict upon him. Jn Eng- land, od the contrary, all officials responsible for such 180 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT an illegal act are responsible, and are liable in the ordinary courts for any damage done to the citizen, just as if they were merely private persons. " There is no exception in England to the rule that every public proceeding, be it the issue of a warrant to arrest, or a demand for rates, or a summons to pay money due to a public authority, or an order of justices, is just as much a matter of ordinary law, and is liable to be questioned in the same way, as a private suit or action brought by one individual against another. In either case the question as to what is lawful has to be decided by the ordinary courts — subject, where the issue involved is serious, to an appeal to some higher tribunal" (Redlich and Hirst, ii. p. 365). There- fore any citizen, believing himself to be wronged by an action of the local authority, can make use of the same remedies (prosecution of officials, action for damages, &c.) against the doer of the act as he would employ against another private citizen ; the Public Authorities Protection Act, 1893, provides only that an action or prosecution against any person for an action done in the supposed discharge of a public duty cannot be commenced after six months have elapsed. On the other hand, a local authority can take proceedings against an individual citizen (e.g. for the contravention of a bye-law, or the non-pay- ment of rates) only before the ordinary tribunals, which in deciding the case really decide as to the validity of the action of the local authority. Dis- putes between two local authorities, if they will not accept the arbitration of the Local Government Board, are settled by the same legal processes as civil suits between individuals. THE COURTS OF JUSTICE 181 There are, however, three special writs issued by the King's Bench which must be noticed — the Mandamus, the Writ of Certiorari, and the Writ of Prohibition. The first of these is of very great im- portance, since it is practically the only means which exists for compelling a local authority to do its work. It is " a command, issuing in the King's name, from the Court of King's Bench, and directed to any person, corporation, or inferior court of judicature within the King's dominions, requiring them to do some particular thing therein specified, which ap- pertains to their office and duty." Application for a mandamus may be made only by some per- son or persons having a special right to call for the performance of the particular act in question ; and in practice application is usually made by a government department, moved thereto by some individual, or acting on its own initiative. The use of the mandamus is limited by the conditions (1) that it is issued only to compel the performance of a duty obligatory on the authority to whom it is directed ; (2) that there is no other adequate and equally convenient and effective legal remedy avail- able. Opportunity is given by the courts to the authority against whom it is sought to be used to show cause why it should not be issued ; and this enables any legal question involved to be duly argued and determined. If the mandamus is issued, and the local authority continues recalcitrant, its members become guilty of contempt of court, and ;irc liable to be committed to prison. The Local Government Board docs nol often find it ncccssarv to apply for the mandamus, but instances occur from 182 ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT time to time, as in the case of the Leicester Guardians in 1899. The writ of Certiorari is a means of bringing up before the Court of King's Bench the decision of an inferior court for review, in order that it may be either affirmed or quashed. It enables, therefore, any person aggrieved by the decision of one of the lower tribunals (e.g. a bench of justices of the peace) in a matter connected with local government to appeal to the King's Bench; though it is compar- atively little used now, owing to the adoption of the plan of appeal by means of a case upon a question of law stated by the lower tribunal for the considera- tion of the High Court. But it is still the method of bringing before the courts any legal question involved in the decision of a Local Government Board auditor. The Poor Law Amendment Act, 1844, directs that " any person aggrieved by any allowance, disallowance, or surcharge by an auditor of any union, district, or parish can make the auditor state his reasons in the book of account in which the allow- ance or disallowance was made, and . . . may apply to the Court of King's Bench for a writ of certiorari to remove into the King's Bench the said allowance, disallowance, or surcharge in the same manner as if it were an order of the justices of the peace." The most conspicuous recent instance of this writ was the case in which the provision of evening continuation schools and higher grade teaching by the School Boards was held to be illegal. There are a few cases in which decisions of local authorities may be brought up in the same way. Thus section 141 of the Municipal Corporations Act, THE COURTS OF JUSTICE 183 1882, and section 80 of the Local Government Act, 1888, provide that any order for payment made by a municipal or county council may, on the application of any person duly entitled, be removed into the High Court by writ of certiorari, and may there be wholly or partly disallowed or confirmed. Finally, the writ of Prohibition, as its name im- plies, is an order issued by the High Court to inferior authorities directing them to refrain from doing particular acts which are beyond their competence. It may be ; used against both central and local authorities. It will not be inappropriate to conclude this chapter, and with it this brief survey of English local government, by reminding the reader of that fundamental feature of the British constitution which Professor Dicey calls " the rule of law." That means, to quote his own words, " in the first place, the absolute supremacy or predominance of regular law as opposed to the influence of arbitrary power, and excludes the existence of arbitrariness, of prerogative, or even of wide discretionary authority on the part of the government. . . It means, again, equality before the law, or the equal subjection of all classes to the ordinary law of the land administered by the ordinary law courts . . . (it) excludes the idea of any exemption of officials or others from the duty of obedience to the law which governs other citizens or from the jurisdiction of the ordinary tribunals. . . Tho notion which lies at the bottom of the ' administrative law ' known to foreign countries is that affairs or disputes in which tho government or its servants are concerned aro beyond the sphere of the 184 ENULISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT civil courts and must be dealt with by special and more or less official bodies. This idea is unknown to the law of England, and indeed is fundamentally inconsistent with our traditions and customs." Of the principles thus formulated this outline sketch of English local government will have furnished abundant illustration. APPENDIX A BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY A. Legal Textbooks. Wright, R. S., and Hobhouse, H. Local Govern- ment and Local Taxation. 2nd ed., 1894. Arnold. Law of Municipal Corporations. Ed., 1894. Macmorran and Dill. Local Government Act, 1888. 3rd ed., 1898. Hadden. Handbook to the Local Government Act, 1894. 2nd ed., 1895. Hunt. London Government Act, 1899. 1899. Glen. Law of Public Health and Local Govern- ment. 12th ed., 1899. Mackenzie. Powers and Duties of Poor Law Guardians. 4th ed., 1895. Casson and Whitblby. The Education Act, 1902. 1903. B. Other Works. Odgkks, \V. B. Local Government, 1899. Redlich, J., ami Eirst, B\ W. Local Government in England. 2 vols. L903. M a i/i i : 1 1 ;, M . K. English Local Government of To-day: a study in the relations of central and Local government. 1897. Fowi.i:, T. VV. The Poor Law. 1898. 185 18G ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT Chance, W. Our Treatment of the Poor. 1899. Balfour, Graham. Educational Systems of Great Britain and Ireland. 2nd ed., 1904. Simon, J. English Sanitary Institutions. 1897. Sykes, J. F. Public Health and Housing. 1901. Darwin, L. Municipal Trade. 1903. Shaw, Bernard. Common Sense of Municipal Trading. 1904. Blunden, G. H. Local Taxation and Finance. 1895. Cannan, E. History of Local Rates in England. 1896. Cannan, E. Financial Relations of English Local Authorities (in Economic Journal, March, 1903). Ilbert, C. P. Legislative Methods and Forms. 1902. Wheeler. Practice of Private Bills. 1900. Dicey, A. V. Law of the Constitution. 6th ed., 1903. Goodnow, F. J. Comparative Administrative Law. 2 vols. 1897. The Municipal Year-Book. Annual volume. The London Manual. Annual volume. Yauthier, A. Le gouvernement locale en Angle- terre. 1898. Arminjon, P. L'administration locale en Angleterre. 1895. Hugo, C. Stadteverfassung und Municipalsozial- ismus in England. 1897. Shaw, A. Municipal Government in Great Britain. 1895. C. Parliamentary Papers. Annual Report of the Local Government Board. Annual Report of the Board of Education. APPENDIX 187 Annual Local Taxation Returns (8 parts, including summary). Annual Returns of Tramway and Gas Undertak- ings (issued by the Board of Trade). Report on Municipal Corporations (Reproductive Undertakings). 1902. Reports of Select Committees of Lords and Com- mons on Municipal Trading. 1900 and 1903. Final Report of Royal Commission on Local Taxa- tion. 1901. Report of Select Committee of Commons on Repay- ment of Local Loans. 1902. Report of Departmental Committee on Highway Administration. 1904. Standing Orders of the Lords and Commons. Pub- lished sessionally. INDEX Administrative law, 13, 179-80 "Adoptive Acts," 22, 171 Agriculture, Board of, 48, 50 Agricultural Eates Act, 148-9 Allotments, 18, 24, 27 Analysts, 107 Art Galleries, 109 Assessment, 147-8 Audit, 51, 164-6 ; in municipal boroughs, 166 Baths and washhouses, 89, 98 Boroughs, county, 14, 30, 31 ; municipal, 14, 30, 31 ; metro- politan, 41 Borough fund, 34 Borough Funds Act, 160, 172 Bridges, 18, 114 Burial grounds, 28, 97 Cemeteries, 97 Certiorari, writ of, 164, 182-3 Cities, 31 City of London, 32-3, 40, 90 Committees, 19-20, 21-2, 24, 27, 34 Conservancies, 41 Control, central, 11-13, 49-56 Coroners, 123-4 Councils, constitution of, in borough, 31-2; City of London, 40 ; county, 16-17, 39 ; metro- politan borough, 41 ; parish, 27 ; rural district, 24 ; urban district, 21 County, ancient, 15 ; administra- tive, 16 County Councils, constitution, 16- 17; expenditure, 19; powers, 18, 57-8, 78, 87-8, 112-13, 119, 122, 123, 150-2, 159-60, 162, 172, 183 Courts of justice, 54-5, 178-84 Dairies, 89, 97, 108 Diseases of animals, 18, 33, 48, 50, 108 District, rural, definition, 14, 23-4 ; council, 24 ; expenditure, 25 ; powers, 24, 88-9, 97, 100, 104, 109, 112, 113, 151 District, urban, definition, 14, 21 ; council, 21 ; expenditure, 23; powers, 22, 78, 88-9, 96-8, 100, 112, 113, 114, 118-19, 124, 151 Education, Board of, 46-7, 54, 74, 75, 82-83 ; Committee of Privy Council, 71, 72, 74 ; condi- tion in 1902, 74-8; cost of, 75, 76, 83-4 ; Education Act, 1870, 72; Education Act, 1876, 73; Education Act, 1902, 78-81; evening continuation schools, 75-6 ; intermediate in Wales, 73, 76 ; " higher," 78, 80 ; history, 71-4; local authorities, 78, 79- 80 ; local committee, 78-9, 81 ; managers, 79; "provided" and " non - provided " schools, 79 ; Royal Commission, 1861, 72 ; school boards, 72, 75 ; Science and Art Department, 72, 73, 76 ; teachers, 47, 71-2, 76-7, 78, 80 ; technical instruction, 73 ; universities, 74, 81 ; voluntary schools, 71, 77, 84 Elections, county, 17 ; borough, 32 ; London, 39 Electors, county, 17 ; urban and rural districts, 21 ; municipal, 31-2 ; parish, 26 Equalisation of Rates (London), 148 Exchequer Contribution Account, 91, 149-54 188 INDEX 189 Factories and workshops, 99-100 Fertilisers and feeding stuffs, 90 Fire brigades, 124 Guardians, Board of, 37-8 Harbours and docks, 15, 48 Health, public, analysts, 88, 92; authorities, 87, 88-90 ; bye-laws, 93, 98; cemeteries, 89, 97; factories and workshops, 89, 99-100 ; history, 9-10, 85-7 ; housing, 87, 101-6 ; infectious diseases, 89, 97, 108; lighting, 89, 97 ; Local Government Board, powers of, 51, 52, 54, 86, 92-5 ; local authorities, powers of, 88- 90 ; London County Council, powers of, 90; medical officers, 91 ; nuisances, 90 ; offensive trades, 96 ; Public Health Acts, 1848, 85 ; 1875, 86, 87, 93, 94, 101, 106, 147; 1890, 87, 107; recreation, 108-10 ; sale of food and drugs, 88, 90, 106-8; sani- tary inspectors, 91, 96 ; sewerage and drainage, 89, 96 ; water supply, 89, 98 Highways, authorities, 18, 22, 25, L'7, 33, 39, 41, 112-14; classifica- tion, 112, 113; cost, 19, 23, 25, 28, 36, 114 ; extent, 112-13 ; reform, 114-16 Home Secretary, 43-4, 49-50, 123 Housing, 87, 89, 101-6 Industrial schools, 18 Infectious diseases, 89, 97, 108 Inspection, central, 51-2, 61, 83, 92, 93, 123 ; sanitary, 90, 96 Isolation hospitals, 88, 90 Justices, 10, 15-16, 122 Libraries, public 109-10 Licenses, local taxation, 149-50, 151 Lighting, 22, 23, 27, 28, 33, 30, 48, 89, '.»7 Light railways, 119 20 Local Authorities IKxpcnses) Act, L66 6 Local government, definition, 7 ; development, 8-12; non-bureau- cratic in England, 12-13 Local Government Act, 1888, 10, 38, 55, 159, 170; 1894, 10, 21, 87, 170 Local Government Board, 44-6, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 59, 60- 62, 86, 89, 91, 92-5, 97, 98, 99, 102, 109, 159, 161, 162-3, 164-6, 172, 173 Local loans, amount, 19, 23, 25, 28, 36, 42, 133-4, 141, 142, 157- 8; authorisation, 158-9, 162-4; limitation, 161-2 Local Loans Act, 158 Local taxation, amount, 140, 142 ; character, 143-7 ; limitation, 161 Local Taxation Account, 149-50 Lodging-houses, 104-5 London County Council, 38-40, 90, 103, 114, 118, 124, 164 London Government Act, 38, 100 Lunatics, 57-8 Main roads, 19, 25, 112 Mandamus, writ of, 54-5, 181-2 Mayor, 31, 32, 41 Metropolis, 15, 38-42 Metropolitan Asylums Board, 40, 90 Metropolitan boroughs, 41, 90, 113, 160 Metropolitan Common Poor Fund, 08 Metropolitan police, 41, 123 Metropolitan Water Board, 40-1, 90 Milk supply, 89, 97, 107, 108 Mortuaries, 89, 93 Municipal trading, in England, 125-9 ; in Germany, 130 ; in United States, 130 ; problems, 130-9 Nuisances, 96 < »pbk spaces, 109 Orders and regulations, 49-50 Overseers, 27, 147 Parish, urban, 11, 25 6; rural, 1 1, 20 ; organisation, 20 7 ; powers, 190 INDEX 27-8, 79, 88, 109; rates, 146, 161 Parliament, reform of, 9, 10 Police, 44, 121-3, 151, 152, 154 Poor relief, casual ward, 65 ; cost, 67-70 ; Elberfeld system, 67 indoor relief, 60, 63, 65-6 guardians, 37-8, 58-61 ; Local Government Board, 49, 51, 60- 62 ; lunatics, 56-7 ; medical relief, 65 ; officers, 61 ; outdoor relief, 60, 63, 64-5 ; outdoor relief prohibitory order, 63 ; paupers, 63, 64, 68-9 ; Poor Law Amendment Act, 1834, 9, 11, 61 ; poor rate, 144-5 ; re- lieving officers, 66-7 ; schools, 66 ; poor law union, 36-7, 59 ; workhouse, 65 Port sanitary authorities, 15, 40, 93 Private and public bills, distinction between, 169 Private bill procedure, 172-6 Private Legislation Procedure (Scotland) Act, 176, 177-8 Prohibition, writ of, 183 Provisional orders, 48, 50, 176-7 Rates, local, definition, 143-4; borough, 146, 147 ; county, 146- 7 ; general district, 146, 147 ; poor, 144-5, 146 Recorder, 31 Reformatories, 18 Registration, 38 Rivers, pollution of, 97 Slaughter-houses, 108 Standing joint committee, 18, 122 Statutory committees, 20, 34, 159-60 Stipendary magistrates, 31 Technical instruction, 73, 76 Tithe Rent Charge (Rates) Act, 150 Trade, Board of, 47-8, 50, 51, 118 Tramways, 117-21 Vaccination, 38, 97 Vestry, " open," 26 ; " select," 26 Watch committee, 34, 122 Water-supply, 23, 24, 33, 40, 89, 97, 98, 129 " Weights and measures, 18, 33-4 Workhouse, 65 THE END UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES LIBRARY Printed liy JiALLANTYNK, Hanson