London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Shoreditch 1891
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Shoreditch, Parish of St. Leonard]
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by the Vestry for local purposes, and the remainder 3s. 10d. was paid to the
Guardians of the Poor and for general Metropolitan expenses. It is important to
bear in mind the continual increase in the precepts of the general Metropolitan
authorities, as the effect of such increase in Shoreditch has been to cause a corresponding
decrease in the expenditure for local purposes. This result is a natural
one where the authority administering local affairs is constantly confronted with
the difficulty of collecting increasing rates from overburdened ratepayers, on many
of whom distresses have to be levied, and where pledges to secure the strictest
economy are exacted by ratepayers from their local representatives, who are the
first to be held responsible for an addition to the rates. This tendency for the
precepts of the general Metropolitan authorities to increase at the expense of local
expenditure and so starve local work is clearly shown by.
The following table taken from figures published by the London County Council.
| AUTHORITY. | 1887-8. | 1888-9. | 1889-90. | 1890-1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| d. | d. | d. | d. | |||||
| County Justices | 1.25 | 1.25 | London County Council. | 12.53 | 13.25 | |||
| Metropolitan Board of Works | 7.62 | 10.90 | ||||||
| Police | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | ||||
| School Board | 8.36 | 7.97 | 8.9 | 10.69 | ||||
| Asylums Board | 1.75 | 2.25 | 1.875 | 2.125 | ||||
| Common Poor Fund | 7.54 | 7.40 | 7.67 | 7.96 | ||||
| s. | d. | s. | d. | s. | d. | s. | d. | |
| Total Rate for Metropolitan purposes | 2 | 7.52 | 2 | 10.83 | 2 | 11.975 | 3 | 3.025 |
| Kates for Local purposes | 2 | 3.48 | 2 | 117 | 2 | 1.025 | 1 | 11.975 |
| 4 | 11 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 3 | |
In the above table "local purposes" includes the expenditure of the Vestry,
Burial Board, Overseers, and of the Guardians on local poor. It will thus be seen
that in three years the rates for Metropolitan purposes have increased by 7½d. in
the £, whilst rates for local purposes have decreased by 3½d. in the It is not
surprising, under these circumstances, that charges of insufficiency of work are
brought against Metropolitan local authorities, whose members find themselves in
the dilemma of having to decrease their expenditure or of ceasing to represent
the ratepayers.