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6
SEWERS AND GENERAL RATES.
The Accountant's statement hereto appended will give the details
of the receipts and expenditure on account of the Sowers and General
Hates. It is only necessary here to state that the rates levied for the
Inst two years, were
1872. 1873.
General in the £. 1/5 1/6
Sowers ditto 4d. 4d.
STATE OF COLLECTION.
The total rates levied for the four quarters ending Lady-day, 1872,
Poor mid Vestry inclusive, was £129,094, and at that period there was
uncollected, including irrecoverable and allowances to owners, £34,876,
being a proportion of 27.5 per cent. to the amount levied.
The total amount levied for the corresponding period, 1873, was
£105,221, and the amount uncollected at Lady-day, was £21,879,
being a proportion of 20.2 per cent., consequently the state of the
collection has improved during the past year by nearly seven and a
half per cent, on the total levy of the year, or by more than one-fourth
of the arrears. This may bo owing partly to the lower rates, partly to
more prosperous times, and partly to the efforts made by the Finance
Committee and the Collectors to accelerate the collection.
ASSESSMENTS.
The Provisional and Supplemental Valuation Lists for the year
have been duly prepared, and the totals for the present year are fixed at
£558,375 ,15s. gross value, and £445,490 10s. rateable value. The
totals for the Metropolitan District, are, gross value £24,810,481, and
the rateable value £20,391,124. It is upon the total rateable value that
the Police, County, Metropolitan Board's, School Board's, and other
charges are levied.
In my Inst report I alluded to the appeal then pending by the
Guardians of the Holborn Union against the assessment of St. Luke's
Workhouse. By the Local Act the Workhouse of St. Luke is to be
nominally rated so long as it is used for the maintenance of the Poor of
St. Lukes. The Vestry were informed by Counsel's opinion carefully
prepared, that this exemption would not extend to the Holborn Union,
of which St. Luke's now forms a part. It was agreed to submit the
point to the Queen's Bench by Special case. The argument was