Poor rate.—This rate is levied by the overseers, and the proceeds are applied to the needs of those local spending authorities who are entitled to contribution from the rate. But the principal purpose of the rate is, as its name implies, the relief of the poor and payment of the expenses incidental thereto, the spending authority being, in this regard, the local guardians of the poor. But in addition to creating the means for the relief of the poor, the poor rate is also, under the administration of the guardians, the source of the fund out of which are paid the expenses of the burial of the poor, of assisted emigration, of vaccination, of regis tration of births and deaths, and, in London, the expenses of the managers of the metropolitan asylums.
The county rate. — The activities of a county council are so varied and extensive that it is inevitable that a considerable sum must be raised in aid thereof. A council, having ascertained the sum needed, sends a precept to the guardians for its contribution. The amount is then raised with the poor rate, and subsequently paid over to the county council. The county rate goes towards the payment of the expenses incurred in respect of such matters as the following :—County buildings ; reformatory and industrial schools ; salaries of clerk of the peace, county coroners, public analyst, and other officers ; registra tion of electors ; execution of Acts relating to destructive insects, fish conservancy, wild birds, weights and measures, gas-meters, and of the Local Stamp Act, 1869 ; elections of county councillors ; bridges ; police, except in the metropolitan police district ; main roads ; enforcement of Rivers Pollution Act, 1876 ; opposi tion to private bills in Parliament ; legal proceedings in the interests of the county ; small holdings ; lunatic asylums ; elementary, technical, or intermediate education ; expenses of the prosecution of felonies and certain misdemeanours ; and jury lists ; and, in London, the making or improvement of streets, roads, and ways ; main sewers and sewerage works ; fire brigade ; electric lighting and tramway undertakings ; and public parks, gardens, and open spaces. The list could be extended, but sufficient items have been enumerated to show the general sources of expense and, incidentally, the extensive interests over which county councils have a care.
The borough rale is leviable, in a borough, to supply any insufficiency in the borough fund to satisfy the payments for purposes to which that fund is by law applicable. The town council has the right to collect this rate independently of and separate from the poor rate, provided the assessment is like the poor rate, and it had, and was actually exercising that right at the time of the commence ment of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882. But otherwise it is payable out
of the poor rate on the order of the town council. Amongst the purposes for which payments can be made out of a borough fund may be mentioned the following :—Remuneration of the mayor and other corporation officials ; election of councillors ; corporate buildings ; borough police force ; elementary, technical, or manual instruction ; execution of the Tramway Act, 1870, and the acquisition, provision, and maintenance of tramways ; and the provision of public walks, exercise, or playgrounds. Other town rates, of the nature of the borough rate, and generally payable out of the poor rate, are the watch rate, school board rate, and the rates for the expenses of the school attendance committee.
Expenses of rural district councils are payable on the order of a council by the overseers out of the poor rate. These expenses may be either general or special. The general expenses include the expenses of the establishment and officers of the rural district council, the expenses in relation to disinfection, the providing conveyance for infected persons, and highway expenses where the council is not the highway authority. What expenses are special is determined by the Local Government Board, and these may be raised by a separate rate, not having the same incidence as the poor rate ; but where the amount required is less than £10 or is so small that a rate less than a Id. in the would be required to raise it, the overseers are to pay the amount as if it formed part of the contribu tions required from them in respect of general expenses, that is, out of the poor rate. The expenses of a rural district council are incurred in respect of such matters as sewers, waterworks, hospitals, scavenging, canal boats, adulteration, dairies, highways, and roads and bridges. The HIGHWAY RATE is the subject of a separate article.
Other expenses which may be raised out of the poor rate are those of parish councils and parish meetings in rural parishes, and those of executing the Baths and Washhouses Acts and of making provisions under the Burial Acts. And certain miscellaneous expenses can be paid out of the poor rate by the overseers without the order or direction of any other local authority. Of these may be mentioned the salaries of assistant overseers, the preparation of the lists of electors and jurymen, the costs of the prosecution of brothels and payment of rewards to inhabitants who give notice leading to a conviction, and any relief given by the overseers in eases of sudden and urgent necessity.