OUR HIGHWAYS. 31 



The eflfect of these ofl&cial audits of course was that 

 the illegal payments which had been regularly made for 

 many years were discontinued ; and in the case of one 

 of the mole- catchers who had been paid for some fifteen 

 or twenty years, on his remuneration being stopped 

 he threatened the surveyor with legal proceedings, 

 because he considered he had not had proper notice. 



The instances cited sufficiently demonstrate the 

 laxity which used 'generally to exist in the adminis- 

 tration of funds raised by compulsory taxation ; and, 

 although I have only referred to those payments 

 which were made out of highway-rates, gross abuses 

 and most flagrant illegalities were perpetrated in the 

 management of poor-rates before the establishment 

 of the present poor-law unions and audit of parochial 



poor-law accounts. <^(Vv^ /l^ctCt-rl-s'lo (^kc ^t^'^ 

 The era of serious mi|ap|j)ropriation of funds legally 

 raised for special purposes may now be considered 

 at an end, as, whenever a legislative measure is 

 passed, involving the raising considerable sums by 

 means of rates, such as for sanitary, school, or other 

 local purposes, adequate protection is afforded to the 

 ratepayers by requiring proper accounts to be kept in 

 specified forms, and periodically passed by an inde- 

 pendent official auditor. The days of the payment 

 of fox destroyers, and mole and sparrow killers, may 

 now be looked on as past. 



