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82
(St Anne for example), the Guardians appoint the collector
of poor rates, while the Overseers (an unincorporate body),
appoint the collector of the local management rates The
inconvenience and useless additional expense arising from a
duplication of rate collectors, is too obvious to need comment
Another objection to the existing system of Local Government,
is the overlapping of areas The area of the Metropolis
itself differs for various purposes: thus the Metropolis
under the Metropolitan Board of Works differs from that of
the Post Office, which differs again from that of the Police
Commissioners, and all differ from the London of the
Registrar General The parish is taken as the unit for some
purposes, the district for others, and the poor law union for
others
At present, moreover, no two Local Boards in any parish
are elected in precisely the same way; Guardians are elected
by plurality of votes (noncumulative), under a system of
voting papers Vestrymen are elected by single votes under
the ballot, and members of other Local Boards are usually
elected indirectly
The scheme proposed by the Corporation of the City of
London appeared to be open to some of the objections entertained
to the London Government Bill, inasmuch as it would
result in the creation of ten municipalities with one central
organization, while no attempt was made to redress the evils
most needing reform Besides which, the ten municipalities
would probably be overshadowed by the central authority
From a consideration of the foregoing observations it will
be apparent that any scheme promising real reform in the
local government of London will require the exercise of no
ordinary amount of statesmanship, combined with a knowledge
of the subject, and an attention to detail which few men will
be disposed to bring to bear upon a subject so prosaic in
character It is essential that a question so far-reaching,
and so important to the health and the pockets of the
millions of residents in London, should not be permitted to