London

In

approximately 25o cases the maternity and child welfare service is administered by the councils of county districts. Special arrangements arc therefore necessary to ensure that, for the bene fit of those councils, an appropriate sum in respect of that service is set aside from the county apportionment. Clause 93 provides for a scheme to be made in these cases by the minister in con sultation with the county council and borough and district coun cils to effect this. London requires and receives separate treat ment. The act provides for the payment of "additional Exchequer grants" in the case of those counties where the county apportion ment falls short of a certain amount. For the first fixed grant period the county apportionment will be made up to a minimum which is to be equal to the "standard sum" plus is. per head of the estimated population of the county for the standard year.

Local and State

504 sets out the manner in which it is proposed to deal with this matter. The effect of the clause is that, subject to a report to parliament, the minister may reduce the grant to an authority if he is satisfied that : (I) it has failed to maintain or achieve a reasonable average standard of performance in respect of public health functions (which by definition include both powers and duties), and that the health of all or some of the inhabitants has been or is likely to be thereby endangered, or (2) that an authority has incurred expenditure ex cessive or unreasonable, regard being had to the financial and other circumstances of the area. Grant may also be reduced if the minister of transport certifies that the roads, or any part of the roads, of a council have not been maintained in a satisfac tory condition.

The Formula of "Weighted

rules in Part III. of the fourth schedule for determining the weighted population of each county or county borough in the standard year (or, after the first fixed grant period, the year prior to the beginning of each subsequent period) employ these factors : (I) the estimated population; (2) the proportion of children under five years of age to the population; (3) the rateable value per head; (4) the proportion of unemployed insured men to the popu lation, plus io% of unemployed insured women; (5) (except for London) the population per mile of public roads.

The factors ( 2) and (3) have been adopted as providing, in combination with population as proposed, an index of general needs and relative wealth and poverty. The factor of unemploy ment is only brought into operation as a further index of the need for assistance where the unemployment is abnormal. The last factor, which is applicable only to administrative counties other than London, has been adopted as a measure of the spread of the population over large areas. For the application of these

principles, for further details of the operation of the act, see the Explanatory Memorandum (Command Paper 3,273 of 1929) pre sented by the minister of health to parliament.

For the Scottish Act see SCOTLAND; Local Government. reference works on local government and municipal law are: Encyclopaedia of Local Government Law, edit. J. Scholefield, K.C. (i905 to date) ; Local Government Law and Legis lation, edit. W. H. Dumsday (1899 to date) ; Glen's Law of Public Health and Local Government, 5 vols. (14th ed., 1922-25). Sir Robert Donald, The Municipal Year Book (1897 to date) contains detailed statistics and particulars relating to individual local authorities (Great Britain and Ireland), with a summary of legislation. On the history of local institutions, see S. and B. Webb's English Local Government series, including English Poor Law History (3 vols., 1926-29), The Manor and the Borough, 2 vols. (1924) , Statutory Authorities for Special Purposes (1922), The Parish and the County (1906) ; J. Red lich, Local Government in England, 2 vols., edit. with additions by F. W. Hirst (1903). Compact summaries of the general legislative and administrative details are: Sir R. S. Wright and H. Hobhouse, An Out line of Local Government and Local Taxation in England and Wales, excluding London (6th ed., 1928), with an index of parliamentary papers and debates; and J. J. Clarke, The Local Government of the United Kingdom (4th ed., 1927), with chapters on Scotland and Ireland and a bibliography, or the same author's shorter but more recent, Outlines of Local Government, etc. (7th ed., 1928). E. Jenks, An Out line of English Local Government (6th ed., 1925) ; and H. E. Smith, Municipal and Local Government Law (1923 ; new edition published in 1929) may also be mentioned. For comparison with other countries, G. M. Harris, Local Government in Many Lands (1926) ; J. W. Grice, Nationale and Local Finance (1910) ; P. Ashley, Local and Central Government (1906). S. Churchill, Health Services and the Public (1928) contains a useful bibliography of recent official papers and re ports; the report of the Balfour committee on industry and trade, Further Factors in Industrial and Commercial Efficiency, pt. 2 (1928), may be read for the valuable chapter on public trading enterprise, and F. N. Keen, The Law relating to Public Service Undertakings (1925) . C. M. Lloyd, Essays on the Re-Organization of Local Government (1919) ; C. B. Fawcett, The Provinces of England (1919) ; and G. D. H. Cole, The Future of Local Government (1921), treat of regionalism and other problems.