TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 845 



form building companies, with shares placed at a low amount, so that all may join. 

 We cannot go on for ever slipping and sliding against our will into Socialism ; we 

 must learn to meet great wants in better fashion — the fashion of men who are not 

 compelled. Then the new wants of civilisation will prove to be our best educa- 

 tors — developing energy and friendliness, and the power to work together. So 

 long as we satisfy every new want by the easy and idle methods of compulsion, we 

 learn nothing, for compulsion leaves all faculties undeveloped and only deepens 

 the causes of strife. 



3. Recent Changes affecting the Legal and Financial Position of Local 

 Authorities in E7igland. By F. W. Hirst, B.A. 



Changes in our Local Government Law may be produced in four distinct 

 ways : — 



1 . By Act of Parliament, private or public. 



2. By decisions of the Courts, i.e. changes of interpretation. 



3. By orders and regulations. 



4. By bye-laws. 



With regard to the third heading it may be pointed out that there are draw- 

 backs as well as advantages in connection with the central control exercised by 

 departments like the Local Government Board, Home Office, and Board of Trade 

 over the Local Authorities. The system of auditors is a good example of a form 

 of administrative control which is wholly advantageous. But other forms of 

 control involve administrative law, and both Parliament and the Courts are justly 

 jealous of interference by bureaucratic boards which sit in London with the 

 free play of representative local councils. In the case of Kreese v. Johnson, the 

 late Lord Chief Justice held that Justices should be slow to invalidate a bye-law 

 made by a local representative body. Ou the other hand the Private Street 

 Works Act of 1892 substitutes Magistrates for the Local Government Board in 

 appeals against apportionment. 



Perhaps the development of Local Government by judicial decisions has been 

 most marked of late years in the spheres of rating and drainage law. In the first, 

 the recent case of Cartwright r. Sculcoates Union deserves particular attention. 

 It follows, I think, from the important decision of the House of Lords in that case 

 that the rent of a tied public-house is legally worthless as evidence of its rateable 

 value, and that evidence of the business actually done on the premises not only 

 may be, but ought, in such cases, to be obtained. 



As regards public bill legislation there is no more interesting study than 

 the rules by which Parliamentary Committees are, or ought to be, guided in dealing , 

 with applications for borough extension. This is a subject well understood and 

 practised by Bradford, which is also a pioneer municipality iu consolidating rating- 

 areas and placing the levying and collection of rotes under the control of the 

 Urban Authority — a reform much to be desired in the interests of good govern- 

 ment and public economy. Another kindred subject is the extension of 

 municipal industry by Private Acts. Lastly, it may be well to pass in review 

 some of the more important measures which have been placed on the Statute-book 

 during the last ten years, including, besides those already mentioned, the Light 

 Railways Act of 1897, the Highways and Locomotives Amendment Act of 1898, 

 the Isolation Hospitals Act of 1893, the Parish Councils Act of 1894, the Agricul- 

 tural Rates Act of 1890, and the London Government Act of 1899. 



4. The Local Incidence of Disease in Bradford : a Comparison between the 

 Bates and Causes of Mortality in Bradford and those of England 

 generally. By A. Rabagliati, M.D. 



The period dealt with is from 1874, when a Medical Officer of Health was ap- 

 pointed iu Bradford, to 1895. The woollen industry as a whole not unhealthy, al- 



