View report page

43
ment Acts or of the Building Act is under consideration
with the view of application being made to
Parliament.
school Board Precepts The School Board for London having complained
of delay in the payment of their
precepts, the Finance Committee reported on the
subject as follows :—
" The half-yearly precepts of the School Board are usually received
" by this Board about two or three months before the commencement
" of each half-year, and they are levied to meet the expenditure of the
" School Board for the ensuing half-year. This Board include the
" amounts of the precepts in the orders which are made upon the Over
" seers of the several parishes in the District about one month before
" the commencement of the half-year. The precepts of the School
" Board require payment of the sums mentioned therein by two equal
" instalments, one on the day preceding the commencement of the
" half-year and the other on the last day of the first quarter of such
" half-year. The Board usually pay these two instalments as follows,
" viz., the first instalment two months after the commencement of the
" half-year and the second two months afterwards. Both instalments
" are therefore paid well within the half-year in respect of which the
" sums are raised. The only way in which earlier payment of the
" School Board precepts could be made would be for the Board to in"
elude in one of their half-yearly calls upon Overseers the estimated
" amount of the School Board expenditure for three quarters instead
" of two quarters of the year. The Board would then have in hand
" at the end of the half-year a sum equal to one-fourth of the School
" Board's estimated yearly requirements to meet the first of the two
" instalments of the precept for the ensuing half-year, which is payable
" in advance. The objection to this course is that the Overseers would
" have to raise in the half-year in question three quarters' instead of two
" quarters' School Board expenditure. This course would no doubt
" meet with strong opposition and resentment, and your Committee do
" not think it would be fair to the ratepayers for the half-year in ques"
tion. It appears to them that the School Board might themselves
" make such arrangements for meeting their expenditure as would be
" compatible with the present dates of payment of their precepts by
" this Board. It has always been the practice of the Board to do this
" with respect to their own expenditure in order to meet the convenience
" of the Overseers The first of the calls made upon the Overseers is
" payable two months after the commencement of the half-year, but the
" Board have made such arrangements that they have in hand at the