Excerpt from Rural Municipalities and the Reform of Local Government: An Outline of a Scheme of Local England and Wales It may be worth while recalling that the aggregate budget of local authorities stands second only to that of the National Government. The returns for the year ending 25th March, 1884, show that the income of the local authorities of England and Wales, for that year, from all sources, was of which the amount levied in rates was and the amount raised by loans 3. The expenditure was and at the end of the year the outstanding loans amounted to These figures alone are sufficient to bring home to us the magnitude of the work of our Local Government. Amongst matters of general public importance which can hardly be considered apart from the question of Local Government, the necessity of a reform of local taxation is generally admitted, and there are now before the country proposals for allotting a part of the national taxes in relief of local expenditure, for reducing the charges on real pro perty and for apportioning the payment of rates between the landlord and tenant of agricultural land, for establishing a system of free elementary education, for establishing free libraries and other similar public institutions, for dealing with the allotment question and for creating a peasant proprietory, for giving to local elective bodies or to a direct popular vote the control of the sale of intoxicating drinks, and many others, none of which can be properly dealt with except in connection with the reform of Local Government. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.