6. Miscellaneous Services.— Brevity com pels the grouping together of a large number of diverse public services organized and admin istered by local authorities. With the excep tion of a few ancient chartered rights in the hands of private owners (of which Covent Garden in London is by far the most import ant), the markets are in public ownership, in volving a total capital of some £10,000,000 ster ling, and (while a few are leased) usually under public administration; often including warehouse accommaation, weighing machines, sometimes cold-storage and abattoir. The municipal provision of workmen's blocks in towns and of cottages in the country has been carried on to a great extent, not only by the London County Council, which had already in 1916 over 30,000 people in its dwellings, but also by about 100 other authorities. ('The Housing Handbook,' by W. Thompson, 1904). The existence of a few "joint-stock cemeteries serves to remind us that the provision and man agement of burial grounds is an important function of the local authorities, in which mil lions of capital is invested, extending in one or two cases (as at Hull), to the provision of cre matoria. Interment is, however, the business of the undertaker, and remains everywhere in private hands; not even subjected, as is the case in some continental cities, to public con trol. The provision of parks and recreation grounds, with bands of music, gymnasia, facili ties for games, etc., has been lavishly under taken. Hundreds of cities and towns have free public libraries and reading rooms; others have also public picture galleries and museums which are uniformly free; while a couple of hundred places provide for their citizens swimming and other baths, and public laundries, at low fees. Among the other miscellaneous public services maintained by English local authorities are the Bradford "conditioning house," or wool-grading establishment, the Burnley municipal cold stor age, the Doncaster race course, and various municipal supplies of sterilized milk. The tendency of local authorities to embark in these enterprises had led to a discussion of what is called"" municipaltrading," during which munic ipalization has proceeded at a greater rate than ever. (For the abstract case against this tend ency, consult 'Municipal by L. Darwin (190.3); for an equally abstract defense, 'The Commonsense of Municipal Trading,) by G. Bernard Shaw (1904), and 'Mind Your Own Business,' by R. B. Suthers (1905) ; for stat istics, 'The Municipal Yearbook) and 'The London Manual' (both annually) ; the seven volumes of 'Local Taxation Returns' annually published by the Local Government Board; and the periodical return of 'Reproductive Under takings carried on by Municipal also issued by that office.) In 1916 the amount of capital under municipal management can not be put at less than 11,000,000,000 sterling; the aggregate municipal indebtedness (all repayable within 20 to 60 years), being over 1600,000,000 sterling, Manchester and Birmingham have over f20 per head of population of capital under municipal management.
The part played by local government au thorities in England in the collective regulation of individual conduct is less conspicuous than their organization of municipal services, but it is too important to be ignored. It is not merely that practically all these authorities exercise, in their power of making by-laws, a minor legis lative function, on which we to a great extent depend for the prevention and suppression of nuisances, the regulation of the streets, all the ramifications of public health, and the opera lions of building and various noxious trades. If, as in England we must, we include among local authorities the justices of the peace, the regulation of the sale of alcoholic drink, the places where it may be sold, and to some slight extent the hours during which the sale may take place, fall within the discretion of local govern ing bodies. Finally, in the direction and control of all the provincial police forces, the local au thorities have virtually extensive and scarcely defined opportunities of supervising and re straining any overt manifestations of individual conduct which is "disorderly in character," and of which local public opinion disapproves.
The collective provision for special classes of the community is one of the oldest and was, until lately, the most costly of the functions of local government in England. Under the com prehensive term of the Poor Law there is now included a whole array of specialized provi sions for orphan and deserted children, for the sick, for persons of unsound mind, for physical and mental "defectives," for the aged and in firm, and for the men and women who be come destitute, together with their children. The total amount spent on this service is about 115.000.000 sterling annually. Beyond the ancient limits of the Poor Law, and still within the sphere of local government, we have, in ad dition, the provision of hospitals for lunatics, idiots, and the costly arrange ments for maintaining and medically treating those suffering from any infectious disease; and the organized provision now made for the tem porarily unemployed — making an aggregate annual expenditure from public funds on the care of particularly distressed or afflicted classes of the community, falling not far short (apart from education) of 13(1,000,000 sterling.
The taxation by which the local authorities maintain all these services (apart from the rev enue of municipal property, the receipts from municipal services and contributions from the national exchequer), is levied entirely by them selves. They cannot create a new tax, but once the kind of impost is authorized by Parliament, the rate at which the citizen shall be charged is as a rule, left to the unrestrained discretion of the local governing body. In amount, there is no limit to its taxing power. Of the total gross revenues of the English local authorities (apart from loans), which may roughly be put at about 1150,000,000 sterling, about 130,000,000 is re ceived from the national exchequer, leaving some 1120,000,000 to be raised locally. Of this nearly £30,000,000 is derived from the receipts from the various municipal enterprises that we have described, 15,000,000 from other municipal property, 12,000,000 from fines and fees, and 15,000,000 in reimbursements and miscellaneous receipts, leaving about 178,000,000 to be raised by local taxation. Tolls and dues (apart from those connected with markets and harbors) yield less than a million. The whole of the balance is found by one tax, the so-called "rate," a periodical levy, upon the occupiers of the real estate within the area of each local au thority, of a specified proportionate part of the assessed annual value of that real estate. This universal impost, known as the Local Rate (sometimes as the Poor Rate, the District Rate, the Police Rate, etc.), varies widely from place to place, but is most commonly between two and eight shillings in the pound, or between 10 and 40 per cent of the annual rental. The actual average for all purposes, including both urban and rural areas, is usually about four shillings in the pound, equivalent to an annual levy on the capital value of the real estate of abo one per cent, and to an annual contribution per head of population of about a couple of pounds. It is an interesting and little known statistical fact that the amount of this local taxation per head is only about the same as it was a cen tury ago. This local tax is legally payable by the occupier of every house or farm, or other separate holding of real estate, who (if, as is commonly the case, he is not himself the owner), is left to make his own contractual relation with the owner or "landlord"; normally the occupier pays the rates in addition to his rent. But in "fiats" forming part of large blocks, and in property of small annual value, especially that let by the week, the owner usually "compounds" with the local authority, in consideration of a discount to pay the rates himself instead of throwing the burden on the occupier (the so-called "compound house, holder'), whose rent then includes both rent and rates.