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objection was made, were, therefore, recalled, and a precept was
issued in August for £2,000, in respect of the estimate for general
purposes, the remaining sum of £2,500 not being called for until
March last, and the amount for lighting Sydenham was divided
into two equal amounts, and precepts issued for them at the same
times. The precepts for the expenses of watering Blackheath, and
lighting Lewisham, were re-issued on the 2nd of November.
The sewerage works, as previously explained, are carried out with
funds raised by loans, and the precepts issued for sewerage purposes
are for the current expenses under this head, such as cleansing
and repairing sewers, interest on the loans, and £5 per cent, per
annum on the amount borrowed to form a sinking fund for the repayment
of the loans. The Board have invested £400, in Consols,
as a sinking fund in respect of the £8,000 borrowed.
An important change has been made by the Board in the mode
of charging their establishment expenses, which amount to about
£800 per annum. In the first instance these sums were charged
on the fund raised under the general rate, but by a resolution of the
Board, made in September, they are now apportioned, first, between
Lewisham and Penge, in the proportions of four-fifths and one-fifth,
as heretofore, and then between the several heads of the expenditure
of the Board, in respect of which separate rates are made. Thus
each head of expenditure bears the cost of administering the amount
expended under it. For further explanation see the statements
of establishment expenses and their apportionment.
The Board having (as subsequently stated) acquiesced in the
principle upon which the debts of the late Commissioners of Sewers
have been apportioned by the Metropolitan Board, and the expenses
of that Board have been levied, have applied themselves solely to
the consideration of the means by which the sums comprised in the
precepts issued by the Metropolitan Board, on this district, might
be raised with the least inconvenience to the ratepayers.
Two precepts have been issued on the district, one dated 13th
March, 1857, and the other the 15th January last. They will be
found in the Appendix, with a full analysis of each.
A large proportion of the sums comprised in these precepts, it
will be seen, was required in respect of debts due upon the district
for sewerage works, and other expenses of the Commissioners of
Sewers, and it became the first duty of the Board to ascertain what
amount they would be allowed to borrow, and what they must
necessarily raise by rate. They proposed that the sums required
for debts should be raised by loans, but that those required for
current expenses should be met by rates, and this principle was