176 Friendly Societies, State Action, and tke Poor-law. 
them both was in use. There was doubtless much to be said 
on the side of economy for the ancient method for the repression 
of crime, and the provision of the destitute. But the principle 
of duty between man and man would not suffer this injustice, 
and the provision of the destitute — a bare and hard one it 
must be admitted — was secured to them by law. How far a 
charge on the soil should be transferred elsewhere, and under 
what conditions personal as well as real property may be laid 
under contribution to maintain the destitute, is a question 
which need not be discussed here.* There can, however, be no 
doubt that the land has been saddled with charges which, 
together with the increased cost of labour, is more than it can 
bear. Possibly the remedy may be found in retrenchment ot 
* The following are passages from a memorial which has been sent to the 
Prime Minister from the Board of Guardians of Farnham and other places : — 
"At the present time real ])roperty has to bear tlie burden of (1) the county 
rates, which include a proportion of charges for prosecutions and police, benefits 
enjoyed by owners of every description of wealth ; (2) the education of the poor 
.as established under the Education Act of 1870 ; (3) the maintenance of paupers 
and relief of poor ; (4) the lunatics ; (5) the repair of highways ; (6) the sanitary 
rates ; and (7) pay a larger proportion to the Imperial Exchequer than personal 
property. That although the Imperial Excliequer contributes a proportion to 
the costs of the police prosecutions, of education, f )r maintenance of lunatics, 
and sanitary rates, the far heaviest proportion of the costs of all the above is 
borne by the land and bouses (real property), wliicli your memorialists would 
venture to suggest is unjust, as the real property is also heavily taxed by the 
Imperial Exchequer, and so contributes indirectly to the Government contribu- 
tions in aid of local taxation. Your raemoi ialists feel that the managers of the 
commercial world, stock and share pioprietors, shipowners, bankers, money- 
lenders, merchants, &c., and every centre of acquired wealth derived from trade 
and personal property, should be ealled upon to contribute a fair quota towards 
the support of the poverty, the police and order of the country, the higliways, 
the health, and education of tlie nation; but if the present system of rating of 
real property only for such purposes be comjiared with the basis on which the 
property and income tax is collected, it would appear that three-fourths of the 
wealth of the community altogether escapes or contributes but to a small extent 
to local government charges. This manifestly unfair system of taxing property 
invested in a certain form, and exempting it in others, tells severely on all 
engaged in the cultivation of the soil, and calls loudly for some modification in 
the law that shall tend to e(pialise the claims of imperial and local taxation on 
every description and class of wealth. The altered state of society of late years 
so induces our population to move about and mix together that the old-fashioned 
parish pauper is difHeult to discover. The applicants for n lief at the present 
day, being supplied from the various industries of all ])arts of the country, entail 
great trouble and expense in removals, whereas, if their claims for a.ssistance 
were recognised by the jniblic exchequer, no removals would be necessary, and 
the country at large would support the poverty and sickness of the nation 
wherever it arose. This is but one phase of the present unjust system of rating 
one class of property for the benelil of another, and the existing distress in the 
rural districts of the country prom])ts your memorialists in appealing to the 
imperial Government tor a full and tair investigation of the whole questiim of 
local taxation. Your memorialists therefore pray Her Majesty's Government 
will cause inquiry to be made by Select Connnittcc or otherwise into the present 
unfair and partial manner in which tiie burden of local taxation is borne by 
a restricted ])ortion of the eoinniunity for the benefit and enjoyment of the nation 
at large."—' Timv«,' Dec. 14, 1«81. 
