92 LOCAL TAXATION 



1875. 



Various points relating to Local Taxation were raised in 

 Parliament, but the chief accomplishment was obtaining 

 certain Returns relating to the administration of the Poor 

 Law. There was, of course, the usual crop of Bills, which 

 the Committee were fairly successful in opposing. It was in 

 this year, too, that they induced the Local Government Board, 

 established in 1870, to insist upon the Demand Note for 

 rates exhibiting clearly in detail the particular purposes for 

 which the rate is required, thus introducing a small but impor- 

 tant administrative reform. 



1876. 



A suggestion, long urged by the Committee, was this year 

 adopted by the Government, when Mr. Sclater-Booth made 

 a formal statement in Parliament, of the nature of a Local 

 Administration Budget. This statement was repeated in 

 1877 and again in 1878, in which year it was brought forward, 

 as originally desired, in closer connection with the Imperial 

 Budget. To the regret of the Committee this statement was 

 not continued after that year, and in 1881, in a debate on the 

 annual Customs and Inland Revenue Bill, Mr. Pell moved 

 for its continuance. The proposal was favourably received 

 by Mr. Gladstone, but he refused his assent to the motion 

 itself, and it was not pressed to a division. 



It is easy to understand the objection of a modern Chan- 

 cellor of the Exchequer to having a Local Budget laid before 

 Parliament, and especially his objection to its juxta-position 

 to the Imperial Budget. This objection would be stronger 

 to-day than at any previous time, for it would show up more 

 plainly than anything else could do how much of the national 

 work is being carried out and paid for by Local Authorities 

 at the expense of the ratepayer. Mr. George, M.P., would 

 have found it impossible to make both ends meet as Chan- 

 cellor of the Exchequer had he not thrown a large portion of 

 the fresh expenditure for which he was responsible upon 

 local rates instead of upon the National Exchequer. 



