CHAPTER II. GENERAL VIEW OF ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT. Distribution and numbers of Local Authorities-Conflict of jurisdictions-Confusion of existing system - Local Finance — Tabular Statement of existing system. IT is hardly possible to give a correct and intelligible general view of the various local institutions which in the aggregate make up the system of local government in England. English local government, indeed, can only be called a system on the lucus a non lucendo principle. There is neither co-ordination nor subordination among the numerous authorities which regulate our local affairs. The Census Commissioners of 1871 remark, in mild surprise, that it is a peculiarity of the administration of this country that nearly every public authority divides the country differently, and with little or no reference to other divisions. Each authority appears to be unacquainted with the existence, or at least with the work, of the others. "There is no labyrinth so intricate," says Mr. Goschen, "as the chaos of our local laws." Local government in this country may be fitly described as consisting of a chaos of areas, a chaos of authorities, and a chaos of rates. Mr. Rathbone stated in the House of Commons that in the place where he lived there were no less than C thirty-five different local authorities. The local government areas into which England and Wales are divided may be enumerated as follows:- There are 52 counties -40 in England and 12 in Wales, 239 municipal boroughs, 70 Improvement Act districts, 1006 urban sanitary districts, 41 port sanitary authorities, and 577 rural sanitary districts; 2051 school-board districts, 424 highway districts, 853 burial-board districts, 649 unions, 194 lighting and watching districts, 14,946 poor-law parishes, 5064 highway parishes not included in urban or highway districts, and about 13,000 ecclesiastical parishes.1 The total number of local authorities who tax the English ratepayer is 27,069, and they tax him by means of 18 different kinds of rates.2 The boundaries of a union never intersect the boundaries of a poor law parish, for the unions are aggregates of parishes-but with this exception; all the various areas intersect and overlap. For instance, 85 parishes and 181 unions are situated partly in one county, partly in another. All these areas are governed by different authorities, elected or selected by different means and bodies. The metropolis is governed by a congeries of authorities and enactments peculiar to itself. In this catalogue of districts, registration districts and the old division of the country into hundreds (or wapentakes, as they are called in the north) have been disregarded. The only practical importance of the hundred now consists in its liability to make compensation for damage done by rioters within its limits. The procedure 1 Census Returns, 1871, as corrected by Preliminary Report, 1881, and Local Government Directory, 1881. 2 See Eleventh Report of Local Government Board, p. 385. for enforcing this liability against the inhabitants is provided by an Act of 1827,1 but proceedings under it are hardly ever resorted to. For the administration of justice the country is divided into circuits, counties, county-court districts, petty sessional divisions, and police divisions. These divisions, with the exception of the counties, have hardly any connection with the divisions of the country for purposes of local government. There are also about twenty towns, called "counties of cities" and "counties of towns," which, for the administration of justice and some other purposes, are deemed to be separate counties. To add to the reigning confusion the same local name may be applied to different areas; for instance, the parliamentary borough, the municipal borough, and the union of the same name, are often not conterminous. Chester furnishes an example of this anomaly. A single county may be taken as a specimen to illustrate the distribution of the various local government areas. Bedfordshire, the first of the counties in alphabetical order, will do as well as any other. Bedfordshire, with an area of 97,000 acres, and a population of 41,000 persons, has one court of quarter sessions, and is divided into 9 hundreds, 7 petty sessional divisions, and 8 lieutenancy subdivisions. The police divisions, with two exceptions, coincide with the petty sessional divisions. The county contains 3 municipal boroughs, 3 urban sanitary districts; 6 rural sanitary districts, some of which stretch into adjoining counties; 6 highway districts, 17 and 8 Geo. IV. c. 31; see also 17 and 18 Vict. c. 104, s. 477 -Plunder of Wreck; and 32 and 33 Vict. c. 47, s. 5-Service of Process. two of which stretch into adjoining counties; 6 burialboard districts; 4 lighting and watching districts; 45 school districts, four of which run into adjoining counties; 6 unions, some of which overstep the county borders; 134 entire poor-law parishes, and portions of three more. All these divisions overlap and interlace. Each of them is governed by its own petty authority, which for the most part wholly ignores the existence of any other division or authority. Passing now from the local distribution of the various areas and authorities, let us next examine the personal application of our system of local government, and see how this clashing of jurisdictions affects the individual citizen. Mr. R. S. Wright illustrates the result as follows:- "The inhabitant of a borough lives in a fourfold area for purposes of local government, namely, in the borough, in a parish, in a union, and in a county; none of these are conterminous, unless by accident, with any of the others; and different parts of the borough are or may be in different parishes, and in different unions, and in different counties. He is or may be governed by a sixfold authority-the municipal council, the vestry, the school board, the burial board, the guardians, and the county quarter sessions; all these are different bodies, and inhabitants of different parts of the same borough are or may be under different vestries, burial boards, guardians, and quarter sessions. He is or may be subject to a borough rate, a general district rate, a poor rate, a burial rate, and a county rate. "The inhabitant of a local-board district also lives in four kinds of districts - the local-board district, the parish, the union, and the county. He is or may be under six governments - the local board, the vestry, the union, the burial board, the quarter sessions, and the school board. Moreover, any of these districts or authorities, except the local board and its district, may be different for inhabitants of different parts of the same local-board district. There is a case of a farm of 200 acres in Gloucestershire which some few years ago was in twelve parishes, and subject to about fifty rates. "The inhabitant of a rural parish lives in a parish, a union, in a county, and probably in a highway district. He is or may be governed by a vestry, a school board, a burial board, a highway board, the guardians, and the justices. There are a multitude of minor matters in respect of which the districts, authorities, and rates are or may be additionally multiplied and complicated in all the above cases."1 The state of things above described results from the English habit of legislating by piecemeal. Special authorities and districts have been created for special purposes, as occasion seemed to require. As society has outgrown existing institutions, the defects and shortcomings have been remedied by patchwork. The result is that the country is covered with a perfect jungle of jurisdictions, each presided over by its own authority. This overgrowth of authorities is firmly rooted to the soil by vested interests. Each petty board or authority must have its own staff and officers kept up at the expense of the ratepayers, however unnecessary this may be for the purpose of doing the work. Confusion and extravagance are the characteristic features of the whole system. The consequent waste of time, power, and money is 1 Wright's Memo., No. 1, p. 33. |