534 



Parliamentary Publications. 



other than those belonging to the County and City of 

 London. 



It appears from the Return that the annual value, accord- 

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

 rated to the rate for general county purposes in England 

 and Wales excluding the County of London, was 

 £96,272,300. 



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 nd. and 5 Jd. in the £, 

 and the lowest i-ld. and ^d. in the £ respectively. In the 

 Scilly Islands the rates for general purposes amounted to 

 is. 2d. in the £ in one parish and to nd. in four parishes. 

 All the counties were rated for general county purposes in 

 1S95-6, but in sixteen counties no rates for special county 

 purposes were raised during the year. 



The total receipts of the county councils, the council of the 

 Scilly Islands, and the joint committees for Lincolnshire, 

 Suffolk, Sussex, and Yorkshire, excluding loans and sums 

 received for re-investment in respect of the police pension 

 funds, amounted to £6,856,676 during the year. 



The increase in the total receipts, as compared with 

 1894-95, was £144,212, of which £29,700 was in rates, 

 £32,200 in receipts from the local taxation account, and 

 £58,500 in receipts from other local authorities. 



The expenditure of the councils during the year ^excluding 

 that defrayed out of loans , namely £6,817,052, was almost 

 the same in amount as the receipts from sources other than 

 loans. There was a small increase in the total expenditure 

 in 1895-96 as compared with that of the preceding year, but 

 there appears to be no special alteration in particular items 

 of expenditure to which attention need be directed. 



The expenditure of the county councils under the Conta- 



