March 1897.] 



parliamentary publications. 



425 



same date. The parochial board accounts and school board 

 accounts are applicable to the year ended 14th May ; the heritors' 

 accounts, as a rule to the same date, though frequently the 

 financial year closes at another date and the county council 

 accounts to 15th May. In burghs the accounts of the Burgh 

 Commissioners are made up to loth May, those of the " common 

 good " to other dates, usually in October. The accounts of 

 harbour authorities and district fishery boards are closed at 

 varying dates during the year. 



It appears that during the year named the total receipts (other 

 than from loans) of the local authorities amounted to 8,305, 9571., 

 and the expenditure not defrayed out of loans was 8,070,244?. 

 The receipts from loans were 2,061,307?., and the expenditure 

 from such sources was 2,141,377?. 



The local authorities whose finances are included iti the above 

 statement consist of parochial, school, district lunacy, and 

 district fishery boards ; heritors (for ecclesiastical purposes), 

 county councils, burghs, and harbours and ports. 



The main items of expenditure (including the sums defrayed 

 out ofloans) were for education (1,664,796?.), interest on loans 

 (1,145,131?.), private lighting (1,112,808?.), sanitation (993,359?.), 

 poor relief (950,563?.), and roads and bridges (764,973?.), • On 

 slaughterhouses there was spent a total of 24,124?., under 

 the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act 42,326?., and for valuation 

 of lands and heritages 16,849?. 



The Annual Local Taxation Returns (England) for the Finan- 

 cial Year 1894-95. Part II. [H.C.— 367.] Price 6Jd 



This publication of the Local Government Board contains an 

 abstract of the accounts of county councils (other than the 

 London County Council) and joint committees of such councils, 

 as well as the accounts of pauper lunatic asylums, other than 

 those belonging to the county and city of London. 



It appears from the Return that the rateable value, according 

 to the county rate basis, of the property liable to be rated to 

 the rate for general county purposes in the 60 administrative 

 counties, and in the Scilly Islands, in which rates for those 

 purposes were raised during the year in England and Wales, 

 excluding the county of London, was 95,211,626?. 



The special county purposes for which rates were levied, so 

 far as the purposes were shown by the returns, included police, 

 Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act, bridges, Weights and Measures 

 Act, lunatic asylums, sea fisheries, Food and Drugs Act, and 

 technical and intermediate education, whilst in many cases these 

 purposes were provided for out of the rates levied for general 

 county purposes. 



The highest rates for general and special county purposes in 

 the administrative counties were 10ct. and 5d. in the £, and the 

 lowest \d. and Id. in the £ respectively. In the Scilly Islands 

 the rates for general purposes amounted to Is. 2d. in the £. In 



