I. Rates raised upon property in _defined_ districts, as parishes,
jurisdictions, counties, &c.
II. Tolls, dues, and fees charged for particular services on particular
occasions, as turnpike tolls, harbour dues, &c., &c.
The rates or sums raised upon the property lying within a certain
circumscribed locality, admit of being subdivided into two orders--
1. The rates of _independent_ districts, or those which, being required
for a particular district (as the parish or some equivalent territorial
limit), are not only levied within the bounds of that district, but
expended for the purposes of it alone; as is the case with the poor
rate.
2. The rates of _aggregate_ districts, or those which, though required
to be expended for the purposes of a given district (such as the
county), are raised in detail in the several inferior districts (such
as the various parishes) which compose the larger one, and which
contribute the sums thus levied to one common fund; such is the case
with the county rate.
But the rates of independent districts may be further distinguished
into two orders, viz.--
i. Those which are levied on the same classes of persons, the same
kinds of property, and the same principles of valuation as the poor
rate; such are the highway rate, the lighting and watching, and the
militia rate among the independent rates; and the police, borough, and
county rates among the aggregate rates.
ii. Those which are _not_ levied on the same basis as the poor rate.
The church and sewers rates are familiar instances of this peculiarity.
The sewers rate, then, is a local tax required for an _independent_
rather than an _aggregate_ district, and is _not_ levied upon the basis
of the poor law.
The assessment of the poor rate, for instance, includes tithes of every
kind, that of the sewers rate extends to such tithes only as are in
the hands of laymen. Again, the sewers rate embraces some incorporeal
hereditaments to which the poor rate does not extend; but stock in
trade, which of late years has been specially exempted from the poor
rate, was never subject to the sewers rate.
A sewers rate, however, was known as early as the sixth year of Henry
VI. (1427), though “commissions” were not instituted till the time of
Henry VIII. The Act which now regulates the collection of the funds
required for the cleansing, building, repairs, and improvements of the
sewers, is 4 and 5 Vict. (1841). This statute gives the “Courts” or
“Commissions” of Sewers, power “to tax in the gross” in each parish,
&c., all lands, &c., within the jurisdiction of such courts, for the
requirements of the public sewerage. This impost is not periodically
levied, nor at any stated or even regularly recurring term, but “as
occasion requires:” perhaps once in two or three years. It is (with
some exceptions, which require no notice) what is commonly called “a
landlord’s tax” in the metropolis, that is, the sewers-rate collector
must be paid by the occupier of the premises, who, on the production of
the collector’s receipt, can deduct the amount from his rent. If this
arrangement were meant to convey a notion to the public that the sewers
tax was a tax on property--on the capitalist who owns, and not on the
tenant who merely occupies--it is a shallow device, for every one must
know that the more sewers rate a tenant pays _for_ his landlord, the
more rent he must pay _to_ him.
The sewers rate is levied according to the rateable value put upon
property by the surveyors and assessors appointed by the Commissioners,
who may make the rate “by such ways and means, and in such manner and
form, as to them may seem most convenient.” It seems a question yet to
be determined whether or not there is a right of appeal against the
sewers rate, but the general opinion is that there is _no appeal_.
The rate can be mortgaged by the Commissioners if an advance of money
is considered desirable. The maximum of 1_s._ in the pound on the net
annual value of the property was fixed by the Act. The Commissioners
have also the power to levy a “special rate” on any district not
connected with the general system of sewerage, but which it has been
resolved should be so connected; also an “improvement rate,” at a
maximum of 10 per cent. on the rack rent, “in respect of works they may
judge to be of private benefit,” a provision which has called forth
some comments.
The metropolitan sewers rate is now collected in nine districts.
There are at present 42 Commissions or Courts of Sewers throughout
England and Wales.
The only return which has yet been prepared of the annual amount
assessed and collected under the authority of the Metropolitan
Commission of Sewers, is one presented to the House of Commons in 1843.
It includes the sum assessed in four of the eight districts within
the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Commissioners from 1831 to 1840
inclusive.
------------------------+------------+------------
|Total in the| Annual
Districts. | 10 years. | Average.
------------------------+------------+------------
| £ | £
Westminster | 235,397 | 23,539-7/10
Holborn and Finsbury | 123,317 | 12,331-7/10
Tower Hamlets | 82,468 | 8,246-8/10
From East Moulsey, | |
in Surrey, to | |
Ravensbourne, in Kent | 175,137 | 17,513-7/10
------------------------+------------+------------
| 616,319 | 61,631-9/10
------------------------+------------+------------
The following amounts were returned to Parliament as that expended in
two other of the metropolitan districts in the year 1833:--
In the City £17,718-2/10
Poplar district 2,746-9/10
------------
£20,465-1/10
Annual average of the four above-mentioned
districts 61,631-9/10
--------------------------------------------------
Yearly total £82,097
The two districts excluded from the above total are the minor ones of
St. Katherine and Greenwich, so that altogether the gross sum levied
within the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Commissioners must have
been between 85,000_l._ and 90,000_l._
The annual amount of the local rates in England and Wales is, according
to a work on the subject (“The Local Taxes of the United Kingdom”),
published “under the direction of the Poor Law Commissioners” in 1846,
8,801,838_l._[68] In this large sum only the average annual outlay
on the six districts of the sewers of the metropolis is included
(82,097_l._), and it is stated that not even an approximate average
could be arrived at as regards the expenditure on sewers in the country
districts. Such absence of statistical knowledge,--and it is a want
continually observable--is little creditable to the legislative,
executive, and administrative powers of the State.
I shall now proceed to show, from the best data at my command, the
present outlay on the metropolitan sewers.
According to the present law, the Commissioners are required to submit
to Parliament yearly returns of the money collected on account of, and
expended in, the sewerage of the metropolis.
I need only state, that in the latest and, indeed, the sole returns
upon the subject, the rates in 1845-6-7, under the former separate
commissions, were 1_d._ and 2_d._ in the pound on land, and from 3_d._
(Ranelagh and Westminster) to 1_s._ 10_d._ (Greenwich) on houses.
The rates made under the combined and consolidated Commissions, from
30th Nov., 1847, to 8th Oct., 1849, were all 6_d._, excepting the
Western division of Westminster sewers, which were 3_d._, and a part of
the Surrey and Kent district, 8_d._
The rates under the present Metropolitan Commission, from 8th October,
1849, to 31st July, 1851, are all 6_d._, with a similar exception in
Surrey and Kent. The following are the only further returns bearing
immediately on the subject:--
RETURN OF THE PERCENTAGE ON THE TOTAL RATEABLE ANNUAL VALUE OF THE
PROPERTY ASSESSED, to which the Rates collected under the separate
COMMISSIONS, between January, 1845, and November, 1847, amounted;
SIMILAR RETURN as to the combined and consolidated COMMISSIONS, from
November, 1847, to October, 1849; and as to the present COMMISSION,
from October, 1849, to July 31, 1851.
------------------------------------+---------------------+----------------+----------------------------------+
| Total Rateable | |
| Annual Value of the | | Amount of the
| Districts on | Average Amount | Percentage of
| November 30, 1847, | collected | the Rates collected
| and October 8, 1849,| for One Year. | on the Rateable
| and July 31, 1851, | | Annual Value.
| respectively. | |
------------------------------------+---------------------+----------------+----------------------------------+
| £ _s._ _d._| _£ s. d._| _£ s. d._
Under the old separate Commissions }| | |
of Sewers, between }| 6,683,896 0 0 | 81,738 11 0 |{ 1 4 5 or 2-3/4_d._ ·72 in the
January, 1845, and November }| | |{ pound per annum.
30, 1847 }| | |
| | |
Under the combined and consolidated}| | |
Commissions, from November }| | |{ 0 18 11-3/4 or 2-1/4_d._ ·11 in
30, 1847, to October 8, }| 7,128,111 0 0 | 67,707 16 3 |{ the pound per
1849 (including first Metropolitan }| | |{ annum.
Commission) }| | |
| | |
Under the present Metropolitan }| 8,135,090[69] 0 0 |{ |{ 1 1 11 or 2-1/2_d._ ·52 in the
Commission of Sewers, from October }| |{ 89,341 16 0 |{ pound per annum.
8, 1849, to July 21, 1851 }| 8,820,325[70] 0 0 |{ |{ 1 0 3 or 2-1/4_d._ ·72 in the
| | |{ pound per annum.
------------------------------------+---------------------+----------------+----------------------------------+