Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/499

Rh 479 The comparison between the two years shows that with the exception of the outdoor relief there has been an increase in each item of expenditure. In this respect the year 1882-83 forms no exception to its predecessors, for the out relief is the only item in which there has been any decrease of late years. Bringing the expenditure down to a later period, the compara tive cost of the half years ended at Lady Day 1883 and 1884 stood thus : 1883, in maintenance 982,586, out relief 1,269,700, total 2,252,286 ; 1884, in maintenance 978,287, out relief 1,226,730, total 2,205,017. Therefore the cost for the half year 1884 had decreased the in maintenance by 4299, and the outdoor relief by 42,970. The average price of wheat per imperial quarter during the same half years was 1883, 40s. lid. ; 1884, 38s. lid. In the article LONDON tables have been given of the system of poor relief there. It must suffice here to notice that the cost of relief in the metropolis, comprising thirty unions, has increased since 1875. On the other hand the proportion which the cost of outdoor relief bears to the cost of in maintenance in the metropolis is continually decreasing. In 1883 the in maintenance was 586,933 and the outdoor relief 199,013. The expenditure for in and out relief in the metropolis for the Lady Day half years 1883 and 1884 stood thus 1883, 417,614 ; 1884, 425,310, an increase of 7696. In the parochial year 1883 the adjusted cost of relief was 2,172,294, being enual to a rate, of Is. 6|d. on the rateable value. It is satisfactory to find that the adult able-bodied paupers have been steadily diminishing in numbers during the last four years, both among indoor and outdoor paupers. Comparing 1883 with 1873, it appears that there has been a diminution of 25,775, or no less than 20 6 per cent., in the mean number of adult able-bodied persons receiving relief, and, if we take into account the increased population, we find that the diminution has been 30 per cent. In the parochial year 1883 the mean number of adult able-bodied paupers was indoor 21,558, outdoor 77,592, total 99,150. The above numbers do not include vagrants. Although for many reasons it is considered desirable that as far as practicable out relief should be given in kind rather than in money, it will be seen by the following table for the parochial year 1883 taken from the unaudited half-yearly statements (and exclusive of relief given by the guardians in respect of school fees) how much more is given in money : Out-Doc r Relief. In Money. In Kind. The metropolis 156,272 38,623 South-eastern 198,657 52,029 South-midland 193,353 34,606 Eastern. 126,155 55 486 South-western 298,371 29 146 West-midland 254,989 36,378 North-midland 176,208 8 248 North-western 202,070 14,366 York 234,644 12,967 Northern.. . 127,113 1 639 Wales 282,487 10 824 Total 2,250,319 294 312 The great difference which exists in the several divisions in the manner of administering out relief is apparent. In the eastern division (comprising Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk) nearly one-third of the outdoor relief was given in kind ; while in the northern division (comprising Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland, and Westmoreland) nearly the whole was given in money. The cost per head of relief on the mean number was in 1883 10, 13s. 6d. ; in 1873 it was 8, 14s. Id. It may be stated here that, whilst in the metropolis the cost of outdoor relief was in 1883 little more than one-third of that of the in maintenance, the expenditure on out relief in the remainder of England, with the exception of the north-western division, was con siderably in excess of that on in maintenance, being in Wales more than four and a half times as great. The mean number of paupers relieved in 1883 was indoor 182,932, and out paupers (inclusive of those chargeable to the poor rates who are in county and borough asylums or in licensed houses) 599,490, or a total mean number of 782,422, being a ratio of 29 6 per 1000 of the population. The mean number of paupers relieved in 1883 was smaller in proportion to the population by 101,266 (or 11 - 5 per cent.) than the mean number relieved in 1873, ten years before a decrease, however, entirely owing to a reduction in the number of outdoor paupers. Some remarkable fluctuations took place in the number of vagrants relieved during the ten years ending in 1883. In 1873 the mean number of this class of paupers was 2700. In 1881 it had risen to 6979, an increase of 158 5 per cent. In 1883 it had fallen to 4790. After the end of that parochial year it still further decreased, owing to the operation of the Casual Poor Act, 1882, extending the periods for which vagrants may be detained in casual wards. The increased cost of relief is attributable to some extent to the fact that the proportion which the mean number of paupers relieved in the workhouse bears to the mean number of paupers of all classes is larger than it formerly was ; but it is also attributed partly to expenses incurred in the erection of improved buildings, the substitution of paid officers for pauper help, and other similar items of expenditure incurred for the purpose of securing the more efficient administration of relief. The yearly cost per head on the mean number of outdoor paupers has diminished during the last few years, and was smaller during 1883 than in any other year since 1873 with the exception of the year 1880. The poor rate is the fund from which the cost of relief Poor is principally derived. The parochial taxation for this rate&amp;gt; purpose in the statute of Elizabeth has been already noticed. As regards the subject matter of taxation the only subsequent absolute interference is in relation to saleable underwood, and also to rights of fowling, shoot ing, or taking game or rabbits, and of fishing, where severed from the occupation of lands, and to mines of every kind not mentioned in the Act (see the Eating Act, 1874:). The statute of Elizabeth enforced what are called duties of imperfect obligation ; for it was, as has been seen, a duty before that statute to relieve the poor and necessitous, and the provisions of that Act were adapted to the enforcing of those duties in the way in which they could be practically carried out by enabling the parish officers to tax the inhabitants, whose representatives those officers are, for the actual performance of the obligations. The Act gives persons aggrieved by any such tax a right of appeal a right which has been fully exercised as well as regulated and affected by much subsequent legisla tion. By the Parochial Assessment Act, 1836 (6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 96), closely following the poor-law amendment of two years before, no rate for the relief of the poor is of any force which is not made upon an estimate of the net annual value of the several hereditaments rated, that is to say, of the rent at which the same might reasonably be expected to let from year to year free of all usual tenant s rates and taxes, and tithe commutation rent charge, if any, and deducting therefrom the probable average annual cost of the repairs, insurance, and other expenses, if any, necessary to maintain them in a state to command such rent. Nothing in the Act, however, altered or affected the principles or different relative liabilities according to which different kinds of hereditaments were previously liable. The statute of Elizabeth (extended in some respects as to places by 13 & 14 Charles II. c. 12) embraced two classes of persons subject to taxation occupiers of real property and inhabitants in respect of personal property, although the rateability under the latter head was reluctantly conceded by the courts of law, and was in practice only partially acted upon. Inhabitants as such, in respect of ability derived from the profits of stock in trade or any other property, were, however, expressly relieved in 1840 by a temporary Act (3 & 4 Viet. c. 89), since continued from time to time. It is solely by expir ing laws continuance Acts (the last Act extending to the end of 1885) that the vast amount of personal pro perty is relieved from the poor rate. This exemption, and the principle on which it is based, of course forms an important element in all questions of local and in many of imperial taxation. As regards occupiers of land and houses, the correct principles as to the persons liable to be rated were, after many erroneous views and decisions, established by the House of Lords in 1865 in the case of the Mersey docks. The only occupier exempt from the operation of the Act of Elizabeth is the crown, on the general prin ciple that such liabilities are not imposed on the sovereign unless expressly mentioned, and that principle applies to the direct and immediate servants of the crown, whose occupation is the occupa-