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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 Sewers and
General Rates. It is only necessary here to state that the ratee
levied for the last two years were—
1878. 1879.
General in the £ 1/9 2/-
Sewers ditto 6d. 6d.
2/3 2/6
The total amount collected on the Vestry rates for the year
was £60,569 9s. 10d., an increase from the previous year of
£10,830.
Of these large sums collected by the Vestry—£61,242 on Poor
rate, and £60,569 Vestry rates, large amounts are paid to other
authorities for purposes over which the Vestry has no control.
Thus, in addition to the £50,000 paid to the Guardians, out of
which the County Rates and Metropolitan Asylum Board's
charges are paid, there is the sum of £10,365 paid to the
Commissioners of Police, equal to an actual rate on the parish of
5d. in the £; also £212 to the Returning Officer for Borough
Registration expenses.
From the Sewers rate is paid the Metropolitan Board's
Consolidated rate of £9,783, or equal to a rate of nearly 5d. From
the General rate is paid the School Board rate of £10,680, or
equal to 5¼d. in the pound. All these charges are based upon the
rateable value of the property according to the valuation list, and no
reduction is made for empty houses or for the allowance to owners.
It will therefore be seen that where from local circumstances a
considerable portion of property is unoccupied the burden of taxation
falls unequally upon the remaining portion, but possibly a remedy
for this unequality is not to be easily devised.