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questions affecting the Metropolis as a whole (such
bridges, markets, fire brigade, main drainage, Metropolitan
improvements, and speaking broadly, the powers of the Court
of Common Council and the Metropolitan Board of Works,
and possibly the Schools of the Corporation and the School
Board), and the consolidation and unification of the powers
of local bodies administering purely local matters (such as
paving, lighting, drainage, sanitation, vaccination, poor-law
relief, administration of local endowed charities, &c ), in the
district selected as the unit of Local (as distinct from Metropolitan)
Government
Owing to local legislation, and the piecemeal manner in
which local Acts have been dealt with by general legislation,
many unnecessary Boards exist in various parishes In St
James's, for instance, the remaining duties of the Board of
Governors and Directors of the Poor might, without difficulty
be performed by the Vestry In the Metropolis, moreover,
Overseers of the Poor are mostly without power in parishes
comprised in Schedule A of the Metropolis Local Management
Act Again, in Parishes in Union, the Assessment Committee
is appointed by the Guardians of the Poor; while in other
parishes it, is appointed by the Vestry Thus, in one parish
the assessment of property comes under the cognizance of
the Poor Law Authority, while in the next it may be thrown
upon the authority created by the Metropolis Local Management
Act
An extraordinary diversity in practice exists with regard to
the collection of rates In St James's the rates are made
and collected by the Vestry In some parishes they are made
and collected by the Overseers In yet others (as Kensington,
and St Martin-in-the-Fields), they are made by the vestry
and collected by another board And in still others, like
Chelsea, they are made and collected by the Guardians of the
Poor A like diversity exists in the mode of appointing
rate collectors; for while in some parishes they are appointed
by one authority to collect all the parochial rates, in othters