The headquarters of the Salvation Army are in Queen Victoria Street, City. There are numerous foreign churches, among which may be mentioned the French Protestant churches in Monmouth Road, Bayswater and Soho Square; the Greek church of St Sophia, Moscow Road, Bayswater; and the German Evangelical church in Montpelier Place, Brompton Road, opened in 1904. (O. J. R. H.)
VIII. Finance
In addition to the provisions that have been mentioned above (Section VII.), the London Government Act 1899 simplified administration in two respects. The duties of overseers in London had been performed by most diverse bodies. In some parishes overseers were appointed in the ordinary manner; in others the vestry, by local acts and by orders under the Local Government Act 1894, was appointed to act as, or empowered to appoint, overseers, whilst in Chelsea the guardians acted as overseers. The act of 1899 swept away all these distinctions, and constituted the new borough councils in every case the overseers for every parish within their respective boroughs, except that the town clerk of each borough performs the duties of overseers with respect to the registration of electors.[1] Again, with regard to rates, there were in all cases three different rates leviable in each parish—the poor rate, the general rate and the sewers rate—whilst in many parishes in addition there was a separate lighting rate. From the sewers rate and lighting rate, land, as opposed to buildings, was entitled to certain exemptions. Under the act of 1899 all these rates are consolidated into a single rate, called the general rate, which is assessed, made, collected and levied as the poor rate, but the interests of persons previously entitled to exemptions are safeguarded. Further, every precept sent by an authority in London for the purpose of obtaining money (these authorities include the London County Council, the receiver of the Metropolitan Police, the Central Unemployed Body and the Boards of Guardians) which has ultimately to be raised out of a rate within a borough is sent direct to the council of the borough instead of filtering through other authorities before reaching the overseers. The only exceptions to this rule are: (1) precepts issued by the local government board for raising the sums to be contributed to the metropolitan common poor fund; and (2) precepts issued by poor law authorities representing two or more poor-law unions; in both these cases the precept has of necessity to be first sent to the guardians. The metropolitan borough councils make one general rate, which includes the amount necessary to meet their own expenditure, as well as to meet the demands of the various precepting authorities. There was thus raised in the year 1906–1907 a sum of £15,393,956 (in 1898–1899 the amount was £10,401,441); of this £11,012,424 was for central rates, which was subdivided into £7,930,275 for county services and £3,082,149 for local services, leaving a balance of £4,381,532, strictly local rates. The total local expenditure of London for the year 1906–1907 was £24,703,087 (in 1898–1899 it was only £14,768,757), the balance of £9,761,734 being made up by receipts-in-aid and imperial subventions. This expenditure was divided among the following bodies:
| London County Council | £9,491,271 |
| Metropolitan Borough Councils | 5,009,982 |
| Boards of Guardians | 3,587,429 |
| Metropolitan Water Board | 2,318,618 |
| Metropolitan Police | 1,903,441 |
| City Corporation | 1,270,406 |
| Metropolitan Asylums Board | 934,463 |
| Central (Unemployed) Body | 141,284 |
| Overseers—City of London | 34,757 |
| Market Trustees (Southwark) | 10,680 |
| Local Government Board—Common Poor Fund | 756 |
| ————— | |
| £24,703,087 |
| (1) Rate and Debt Accounts. | |||||
| Estimated Income. | Estimated Expenditure. | ||||
| Balances | £967,740 | Debt (including management) | £3,905,135 | ||
| Receipts in aid of expenditure (local taxation licences | Grants (mostly guardians) | 645,913 | |||
| and estate duty, beer and spirit duties, &c.) | 513,541 | Pensions | 75,665 | ||
| Government grants in aid of education | 1,515,663 | Establishment charges | 232,045 | ||
| Interest on loans advanced to local authorities, &c. | 586,065 | Judicial expenses | 52,515 | ||
| Rents, &c. | 427,767 | Services— | |||
| Contributions from revenue-producing undertaking | Main drainage | £295,650 | |||
| for interest and repayment of debt | 685,948 | Fire brigade | 263,575 | ||
| Miscellaneous | 3,633 | Parks and open spaces | 140,715 | ||
| Rate contributions— | Bridges, tunnels, ferry | 49,925 | |||
| General, for other than education | 2,698,610 | Embankments | 14,940 | ||
| For education | 3,675,694 | Pauper lunatics | 78,870 | ||
| Special | 407,946 | Inebriates Acts | 14,045 | ||
| Coroners | 30,925 | ||||
| Weights and measures | 14,830 | ||||
| Gas testing | 13,785 | ||||
| Building Acts | 25,595 | ||||
| Diseases of Animals Acts | 19,260 | ||||
| Miscellaneous | 63,060 | ||||
| ———— | |||||
| £1,025,175 | |||||
| Education | 4,025,442 | ||||
| Steamboats | 14,805 | ||||
| Works Dept. | 12,100 | 5,889,522 | |||
| Parliamentary expenses | 22,675 | ||||
| Miscellaneous | 6,214 | ||||
| ————— | |||||
| Total expenditure | 10,829,684 | ||||
| Balances | 652,923 | ||||
| ————— | ————— | ||||
| £11,482,607 | £11,482,607 | ||||
| (2) Revenue Producing Undertakings. | |||||
| Estimated Income. | Estimated Expenditure. | ||||
| Balances | £4,055 | Working expenses— | |||
| Receipts— | Working class dwellings | £56,060 | |||
| Working class dwellings | £173,443 | Tramways | 1,318,620 | ||
| Tramways | 2,089,955 | Small Holdings and Allotments | 621 | ||
| Small Holdings and Allotments | 410 | Parks boating | 2,965 | £1,378,266 | |
| Parks boating | 5,100 | 2,268,908 | Renewals | 163,828 | |
| Transfers | 6,214 | Reserve | 44,557 | ||
| Interest on and repayment of debts | 685,946 | ||||
| Transfer in relief of rates (parks boating) | 2,000 | ||||
| Balances | 4,580 | ||||
| ———— | ———— | ||||
| £2,279,177 | £2,279,177 | ||||
The total expenditure was equal to a rate in the pound of 11s. 4.4d.; the actual amount raised in rates was equivalent to a rate of 7s. 1.0d., receipts-in-aid were equivalent to a rate of 3s. 2.5d., and imperial subventions to a rate of 1s. 3.4d. Practically the whole amount contributed towards the support of public local expenditure, and a considerable amount of that contributed to public national expenditure is based on the estimated annual value of the immovable property situated within the county of London, which in 1876 was £23,240,070; in 1886 £30,716,719; in 1896 £35,793,672; and in 1909 £44,666,651. The produce of a penny rate was, in the
- ↑ Over 200 local acts were repealed by schemes made under the act of 1899.
