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60
24th December, they were informed that the then balance
to the credit of the School Board rate was a little over
three thousand pounds, and that if they were willing to
accept that sum in part payment a cheque should be drawn
at once; but that otherwise the Board would have to share
with the Vestry the inconvenience arising from the payment
being somewhat in arrear. No reply was forthcoming
to this frank intimation.
Financial
Outlook,
1890-1.
Prior to the receipt of this lawyer's letter, the
Finance Committee were favoured by MajorGeneral
Sim, a member for the Westminster Division upon
the School Board, and a Vestryman, with a copy of the
Preliminary Financial Statement of that Board for 1890-91,
in which it was stated that the rate for the next financial
year would be "at least 10d. in the pound, on an assessment
"of about thirty-one and a half millions," based on the
totals of the rateable value of the metropolis. The Vestry
thereupon deemed it their duty to demonstrate to the
School Board that from the point of view of the rating
authorities in the metropolis (who have to collect the
money in satisfaction of the Board's precepts), these
statements were unsatisfactory in a two-fold sense. First,
in the sense that any increase in the rate was unsatisfactory,
bearing in mind the enormous growth of the rateable
value of the metropolis; and secondly, that such statements
did not correctly convey to the minds of the householders
the rate in the pound they would be called upon to pay.
In the statement, the estimated rate was given as 10d. in
the pound, "on an assessment of about thirty-one and a
"half millions"; but that was on the assumption that
every property in the metropolis would be occupied
throughout the year, and that the rate could be collected
without cost. If the "empties," "compositions" with
tenement landlords, losses from other causes, and cost of
collection were taken into consideration, a rate of at least