The Express.
London, England, 1861-08-08 00:00:00

METROPOLITAN LOCAL TAXATION AND

Oofiliziiii;ii:

The Commons' Select Committee on the Local
Taxation and Government of the Metropolis, whose report
has just been issued, have bad to deal with an area of
78,029 acres, on which stand 360,Z37 inhabited houses
with • population of 2,803,034 souls ; the assessment is
12,450,416/. ; 7,000 persons are employed, entirely or par.
tally, in duties connected with the local government of this
vast body. Schemes were suggested to the committee for a
comprehensive system of municipal government of the
whole metropolis under one head, with minor local affairs
administered by the authorities of the several wards or dis-
tricts, and the report as framed by Mr. Ayrton pointed to an
enlargement of the city corporation, or "an improvement
of the constitution of the Metropolitan Board of Works,"
but the committee struck out These clauses, and, observing
that the question involved imperial as well as local interests
of vast magnitude, reported that they conceived the discus.
sion of these plans should form the subject of future inquiry,
and they therefore wished to express no opinion as to the
comparative merits of the schemes suggested in the evidence
taken. Of the Board of Works the committee content
themselves with saying that the tendency of the evidence
leads to the conclusion that though this body, as now con.
stituted, is fully competent to discharge the duties imposed
upon it, greater authority would attach to its deliberations
were its members elected directly by the ratepayers, and not
by the vestrymen. The committee, after recalling, among
other things, the suggestion made years ago that the rail-
way termini should be connected with each other by rail-
way, so as to take all through traffic off the streets, recent.
naiad that the Metropolitan Board of Works should be
empowered to appear before railway committees when
necessary, to watch over metropolitan schemes, and protect
the interests of the inhabitants. A clause recommending
that the planning and execution of the Thames embank-
ment be entrusted to this board was rejected on a division.
The question of the equalisation of the poorrates is not
touched, because another committee was considering the
poor laws ; and the coal and wine duties were also regarded
as taken out of the hands of the committee by par-
liament in passing the bill to continue them for ten years
and appropriate them to metropolitan improvements.
Therefore on the subject of taxation, the committee
have only to recommend that so far as the tax on
hackney carriages exceeds that of the country, it should
be remitted or applied in aid of the rates levied for local
purposes (the object for which it was imposed); that the
duty on corn ought either to be abolished, or, being levied
on all the inhabitants, applied for their general benefit;
that, as railways and omnibuses will now compete, the
taxation ought to be on the same principle, in both in-
stances on the miles run, or in both on the gross receipts ;
and that the unappropriated part of the duties the city
was authorised to raise, now constituting the Loudon-bridge
Approaches Fund, ought to be applied for the benefit of
the inhabitants of the whole metropolis, whose taxation
has redeemed the permanent annuity which the city was
to pay in discharge of its own debt. With regard to
the administration of justice, the committee think it de-
serves consideration whether the Central Criminal Court
should not sit as often u might be requisite for the trial
of minor cams, reserving the more important for the
monthly attendance of the judges. They see no reason
why the county court system should not extend to
the city ; and they think it matter for considera-
tion whether it would not be advantageous to the
inhabitants if arrangements were made for the trial of all
metropolitan causes (not ocrgobtable by the County Courts) at
• central court of nisi pries, analogous to the Central
Criminal Court, instead of some being tried at Guildhall,
some at Westminster, sod some at the Surrey and Kest
Assizes. The committee advert to the subject of public
property in the metropolis, which is connected with that of
local taxation in so far as such property can be justly applied
to purposes otherwise to be provided for out of local taxes;
but they did not inquire into the varied interests in all the
public property belonging to local bodies in the metropolis,
as it would involve many complicated questions. They
content themselves with observing that it is a subject
worthy of the most careful investigation.

Naw ACT ON UNIVERSITY ELFA"TIONS.—AII act
of parliament, which received the royal anent on Thursday,
has been printed, and provides that votes at election's for
the universities may be recorded by means of voting papers.
The object of the act is to afford miter facilities for voting
to the electors at elections for burgesses to serve in parlia-
ment for the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and
Dublin. It is now lawful for electors to vote by mean of
voting papers, in lieu of attending to vote in person : to
nominate any other electors of the same university com-
petent to make the declaration required. The voting papers
may be inspected by any person now entitled to object to
votes, and such papers are to be filed. A penalty by tine,
or imprisonment for a term of one year for a misdemeanour,
is to be unposed upon any person falsely signing a voting
paper, or otherwise fraudulently acting in any manner
respecting the same. The papers are not to be liable to stamp
du.
EXPORT OF RAILWAY MATERIAL TO INDIA.—The
activity which prevailed last year in various branches of the
iron trade is to some extent explained by the immense
shipments made of sisaVriel to India, on account of the
railway works now in progress. It appeirs from as off etal
return that last year no less than 234,710 tons of maternar
were despatched to India of the collective value of
2,140,703/., being the largest consignment made in any rem
year mince the works were commented. The proportion of
saaarid taken by each company was as follows, omitting
fractions :—East India, 66,448 tons, of the value of 580,3871.;
Madras, 38,348 tons, of the value of 26.8421.; Great Indian
Peninsula, 25,971 tons, of the value of 238,385/. ; Bombay
Baroda, and (lutist India, 32,981 tons, of the value of
335,8681. ; &nide, 2,056 tone, of the value of 26,582/.; Poe*
jab, 24,107 tons, of the value of 241,211/. ; Indus Steam
Flotilla, 1,240 tons, of the value of 17,215/.; Great Southern
of lndia, 17,139 tons, of the value of 118,574/. ;
Calcutta
and South-Eastern, 6,088 tons, of the vales of 74,174/. ;
Eastern Bengal, 30,3.0 tons, of the value of 213,686/.
BRISTOL AND EXETER RAILWAY DIVIDEND.--R
is stated that the directors of this company have derided oe
recommending to the proprietors a dividend at the rate la
41 per mt. per annum for the put balf.year.