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Bef ore 1899 the duties of overseers in London had been performed by most diverse bodies. In that year the new borough councils were constituted in every case the overseers within their respective boroughs, except that the town clerk of each borough performs the duties of overseers with respect to the registration of electors. Again, with regard to rates, there were till 1899, three or four different rates leviable in each parish. These are now consolidated into a single rate, called the general rate. Every precept sent by an authority in London for the purpose of obtaining money (these authorities include the London County Council, the receiver of the Metro politan police, the Central Unemployed Body and the boards of guardians) which has ultimately to be raised out of a rate within a borough is sent to the council of the borough. The only ex ceptions to this rule are : (I) precepts issued by the local govern ment board for raising the sums to be contributed to the metro politan common poor fund; and (2) precepts issued by poor law authorities representing two or more poor law unions ; in both these cases the precept has of necessity to be first sent to the guardians. The metropolitan borough councils make one general rate, which includes the amount necessary to meet their own ex penditure, as well as to meet the demands of the various precept ing authorities. The total amount of rates raised in 1923-24 was £28,630,743, representing a rate of I's. 9d. in the pound (cal culated on the basis of the net produce of a rate of a penny in the pound). Of this 8s. 7d. in a pound was levied centrally, 5s. 5d. for county purposes (London County Council, Metropolitan Asylums Board, Metropolitan police, Metropolitan Water Board, and Central Unemployed Body) and 3s. od. for local services (London County Council grants to local authorities, Equalization fund and Common Poor fund). The remainder, 3s. 2d. in the pound, was levied locally by the City Corporation, the metro politan borough councils, and the guardians of the poor.
The total expenditure of the London County Council, borough councils, and other local authorities, in 1923-24 was £55,371,963, when payments included twice had been deducted. Receipts in aid were L17,175,895, and exchequer grants were £9,815,192, leav ing L28,380,876 to be raised by rates (the amount actually raised was L28,630,743). This expenditure was divided among the fol lowing bodies:—London County Council, £24,472,843; Metropoli tan Asylums Board, £2,089,692; Metropolitan Police (proportion),
Local Government Board (Metropolitan Common Poor fund), £943; Metropolitan Water Board, £3,657,776; Central (Unemployed) Body, £2,206; Central Unemployed Body (volun tary contributions), L37,856; City of London Corporation, 12,129,226; City of London Mental Hospital committee, L61,966; Metropolitan borough councils, £11,838,857; Market trustees (Southwark), £18,822; Guardians of the Poor, £8,417,390; Man agers of school districts and sick asylum district, £290,951— Gross total of expenditure, £57,943,890. A re-valuation of prop erties is made every five years. In 1894, the fund called the Equalization fund was established. This fund is raised by the rate of 6d. in the pound on the assessable value of the county of London, and redistributed among the boroughs in proportion to their population. But, in spite of attempts at equalization, rates remain very unequal in London, and varied in 1927-28 from 9s. 7d. in the in Westminster, to 25s. in Poplar, though the Govern ment had previously been compelled to intervene in the financial administration of the latter borough, which was convicted of extravagance and laxity. The London County Council levied in 1909-10 to meet its estimated expenditure for the year a total rate of 3s. oid., and in 1927-28 one of 3s. I id. Out of an annual
expenditure of about 20 millions sterling, some three-fifths is de voted to education.
Besides the annual expenditure of the various authorities, large sums have been borrowed to defray the cost of works of a per manent nature. The debt of London, like that of other munic ipalities, has considerably increased and shows a tendency to go on increasing, although certain safeguards against too ready bor rowing have been imposed. Every local authority has to obtain the sanction of some higher authority before raising a loan, and there are, in addition, certain statutory limits of borrowing. Metropolitan borough councils have to obtain the sanction of the Local Government Board to loans for baths, washhouses, public libraries, sanitary conveniences and certain other purposes under the Public Health Acts; for cemeteries the sanction of the Treasury is required, and for all other purposes that of the London County Council; poor law authorities (see however POOR LAW), the Metropolitan Water Board and the Central (Unemployed) Body require the sanction of the Local Government Board ; the receiver for the Metropolitan police district that of the Home Office, and the London County Council that of parliament and the Treasury. The debt of the London County Council is approxi mately £63,000,000.
The Local Govern ment Act of 1888 dealt with the metropolis for non-administrative purposes as it did for administrative, that is to say, as a separate county. The arrangements of quarter-sessions, justices, coroners, sheriffs, etc., were thus brought into line with other counties, ex cept in so far as the ordinary organization is modified by the existence of the central criminal court, the metropolitan police, police courts and magistrates, and a paid chairman of quarter sessions. The powers of the governing body of the City, more over, are as peculiar in this direction as in that of municipal administration, and the act left the City as a county of a city practically unchanged. Thus the lord mayor and aldermen possess judicial authority, and the police of London are divided into two separate bodies, the Metropolitan and the City police. (See POLICE.) The chief courts for the trial of criminal cases are the Central Criminal Court and the Court of Quarter-sessions. The Central Criminal Court, taking the place of the provincial assizes, was established by an act of 1834. There are 12 sessions annually, under the lord mayor, aldermen and judges. They were formerly held in the "Old Bailey" sessions-house, but a fine new building from designs of E. W. Mountford took the place of this in 1906. Quarter-sessions for the county of London are held 24 times annually, for the north side of the Thames at the Sessions-house in Clerkenwell (Finsbury) and for the south side at that in Newing ton causeway, Southwark. The separate court of the lord mayor and aldermen is held at the Guildhall. The Metropolitan police courts are 14 in number. The police courts of the city are held at the Mansion House, the lord mayor or an alderman sitting as magistrate, and at the Guildhall, where the aldermen preside in rotation. The prisons within the metropolis are Brixton, Holloway, Pentonville, Wandsworth and Wormwood Scrubbs. There are 12 coroners' districts, 19 petty sessional divisions, and 13 county court districts, including the city in each case. The boundaries of these divisions do not correspond with each other, or with the police divisions, or with the borough or parish boundaries. The registration county of London coincides with the administrative.