Mr. William Rathbone has addressed a remarkable letter to the
Mies (October 17) on the subject of local taxation. He says the tendency to borrow constantly increases, while the attention of public men to local affairs as constantly diminishes. In the single year 1871 the local bodies in the kingdom raised 25,000,000 by loan, and Liverpool, in the thirty years ending 1871, has borrowed on an average 1100,000 a year. In that town, and in that time, while wages rose 30 per cent., rates rose- 64 per cent. ; and while the taxation was in 1841 7s. 4d. a head, in 1871 it was 25s. 3d. Yet Liverpool is so rich in property not derived from rates, that out of £960,000 received in 1871, no less than 1479,000 was not derived from taxation. Mr. Rathbone points to multiplicity of authorities as the main cause of the mis- chief, and anybody who remembers that there are more than 2,000- spending bodies in England and Wales alone will see that he must be right. , We want a big new municipal system, and are not at all sure that Mr. Gladstone could not do aa much for the country in local taxation as the Peelitee did in national taxation. Only he must do it himself, and prepare his Bill as if it was an Irish Land Act. We want fewer districts ; a new source of revenue, not based on rental only ; and a Parliamentary veto on loan- raising. There is a normal deficit in thi local-taxation budget,— so bad that the insolvency of a municipality would be almost a blessing. No municipality should raise sixpence by loan without provision for repayment in fifty years.
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