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105
could be moved bodily to Islington. The rateable value on a rental
of £90 is £75, and rates at 4s. in the pound on this sum would be
£15. The rateable value on a rental of £65 is £55, and rates at
5s. 2¼d. on this would be £14 5s. 3¾d. Charges common to the
Metropolis represent a rate of about 3s. 3d. in the pound, so that
the ratepayer in St. James's not only pays a higher rent than he
would have to pay for similar accommodation in Islington, but also
contributes £12 3s. 9d. to the County Council, School Board,
Asylums' Board, Common Poor Fund, Police, &c., compared with
a contribution of £8 18s. 9d. by the Islington ratepayer. In other
words, assuming the comparision of rental values in the two
districts to be correct, the ratepayer in Broad Street, on a rate of
???s. in the pound, contributes £3 5s. 0d. more to Metropolitan
charges than the ratepayer in Islington, having similar accommodation,
and paying rates at 5s. 2¼d. in the pound. These contributions
to common funds are gross payments, subject to repayments.
Islington receives a larger repayment than St. James's, so that the
net result is, in proportion, even more against St. James's than the
foregoing figures would show. In either case, the ratepayer in St.
James's with a rate of 4s. in the pound already pays more to
Metropolitan Authorities, according to the accommodation afforded
by his residence, than the ratepayer in Islington with a rate of
5s. 2¼d. Then, again, why does the workman employed in St.
James's reside in Fulham or Lambeth, where the rates in the pound
are so much higher? Simply becauso in spite of the nominally
higher rates, the total burden of rent and rates in Fulham or
Lambeth is so much lighter than in St. James's that it answers his
purpose to incur the additional cost of travelling to and fro and
suffer the inconvenience of living away from his work in order to
get away from the parish which is said to have the blessing of low
rates. The fact, is, the rates in central London are low because
the basis of assessment is high. This aspect of the case is not only
ignored by the Bill, but is always overlooked by the advocates of a
theoretical equalization of rates.
But a few figures clearly show that the Bill will not produce
oven a theoretical equalization of rates. Thus, the present rateable
value of Camberwell is £1,010,778, so that £20,727 the estimated
net amount payable to that Parish under the Bill represents a rate