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can check every payment into the bank. A complete system of checking in the
most thorough manner every operation of the collection was introduced, and as longas
this is maintained there is on chance of any defalcations occurring to any
serious amount without immediate detection.
The successful working of the system was soon shown in the case of the Moorfields
Ward where the defalcations and false entries of the collector were detected
directly they reached £25, and within one day of the false return being made the
Accountant required an explanation from the collector, and I was enabled to have
all his outstanding arrears cheeked in the course of the three following days.
The rate is now collected and closed earlier than heretofore by which many
losses are saved, but the most important feature of the system is the institution of an
arrears clerk by the proper direction of whose work the rate can be much more
closely collected than heretofore, and I think the results amply justify the extra
expenditure on this head of £60 per annum which is the proportion of the arrears
clerk's salary attributable to this work. The total reduction in loss of rates through
empty properties, bankruptcies and runs since the introduction of the new system is
indeed so surprisingly large that 1 have thought it well to describe at some length
the thorough changes effected in the old system, as it is rather to these changes than
to any past negligence on the part of the collectors (other than those now
dismissed) that the great reduction of the loss on rates is due. By a comparison
of carefully tabulated statements of irrecoverable rates it appears that
the percentage of loss in respect of the above heads for the year ending
Christmas, 1890, on the total rates charged amounted to 5.4 per cent., whilst fcr
the year ending Christmas, 1891, it is only 4.3 per cent., a reduction of 1.1 per
cent., which represents a saving of £1,564 on the year's collection of 1891. The
reduction in losses of rates commenced to be very noticeable at Lady-day quarter,
1891, when there was a decrease of .8 per cent. (which is at the rate of £1,188
per annum) over the average loss of the preceding four quarters of 1890, and as
the system above referred to has been perfected and put in full working order,
the loss under the above heads has gone on decreasing, until for the Lady-day
quarter, 1892, the percentage of loss has been reduced to 8.9, or a decrease of 1.5
per cent. over the average quarterly loss for the year 1890. This decrease
represents a saving at the rate of £2,133 per annum in the collection of the rates,
whilst if the Lady-day quarter, 1892, is compared with the Lady-day quarter,
1890, the decrease in the loss of rate is 1.8 per cent., or a saving at the rate of
£2,560 per annum.
In making these calculations losses on the rates of public companies (which
are collected through the Vestry Clerk's office) by excusal of the Magistrates,
reduced assessments, and allowance to owners, have been eliminated, as these are
beyond the collector's power, and the loss has been reckoned by percentage on
rates charged to prevent misapprehension from the increase of assessment by the