78 BRITAIN FOR THE BRITON 



fivepence in the pound, while the borough council's expenses have 

 been reduced by a sum equal to a rate of one penny in the pound. 



"An emergency precept of £12,000 was served unexpectedly on 

 the council by the late board of guardians." 



There are numerous instances of similar needless extrava- 

 gance in other parts of the country, but these will suffice for 

 the moment. 



The Augean Stable 



These disclosures are most disheartening to rate-payers, and 

 many of them will, no doubt, think that the publicity which 

 has been given to them, and the severe terms of imprisonment 

 inflicted on the West Ham culprits, will clear out the Augean 

 stable and serve to afford the necessary protection of public 

 moneys. 



But do not let them indulge in such fond delusions : there 

 is more here than meets the eye. 



The fact is the whole pauper administration stands on an 

 unsound basis, and is rotten to the core. 



The attitude of Government, and that of the municipal 

 administrations, the tax- payers, and the people is as wrong- 

 headed as it possibly can be, and unless we, as a nation, assume 

 a sensible, practical, and healthy attitude towards this unsatis- 

 factory and eminently unsavoury question, no help will be 

 forthcoming. 



Government will do nothing so long as the country does not 

 give them what they call a mandate. They, the Government, 

 will contend that pauperism has to be provided for according to 

 the laws of the laud, and in raising millions in rates and taxes 

 they are simply obeying the mandate of the country. " If you 

 want something different, you must give us another mandate," 

 say they. 



The municipal administrations, poor law guardians, and the 

 rest of the spending official bodies, simply follow the lead of 

 the Imperial Government. Their duty is to impend the millions 

 subscribed by the tax-payers, and recent disclosures show how 

 they do it. 



The tax-payers, not as yet fully realising that pauperism in 

 our country is no more a natural result of economic laws than 

 is drunkenness, have hitherto yielded up their millions with 

 certain misgivings that something was wrong, but what that 

 something was they couldn't quite make out. They have 

 recently learnt that vast sums of their money have been 

 shamelessly squandered rather than spent, but that fact seems to 

 reveal corruptness or incapacity in the spending administration 



