292564228

47

LOCAL TAXATION IN COPENHAGEN.

Sundays. An inquiry into the social position of borrowetrs shows that the libraries are really used by the classes for whom they are intended, the more well-to-do having numerous oppor- tunities of providing similar facilities for themselves in other ways; societies, clubs, and the like being numerous. F inance . The net ordinary expenditure of Manchester, including provision for repayment of debt, is stated in the Treasurer’s accounts at amounts averaging, over the last five vears, £734,228, in addition to which, in the last three, an average of about £156,000 in respeot of the Ship Canal debt is charged to the City Fund. This amount does not represent the full outlay on the working of the various departments and the interest on the debts incurred on their account. The total debt of the city is split up between many departments, each of which provides separately for its own share, the above figure including such provision where the department has to draw on the city account; omitting it where, as with the Gas Department, the department transferjfs a net sum to credit of the City Fund. Were the Water Department, for example, not managed as a separate organisation, but the supply of ordinary domestic water charged for in an increased city-rate instead of a separate water* rate, the whole aspect of the accounts would undergo consider- able modification. The difference in this last respect, and the different mode of arranging for sewage-disposal in the two cities, prevent us from making a simple direct comparison of the cost of the total services of the municipality in the two places. Inasmuch, however, as the separate charge for water in Man­ chester is, as shown, considerably greater per inhabitant than the price paid in Copenhagen, in the period we use for com­ parison, for the removal of night-soil effected by the companies which were engaged in that work as a business undertaking, a comparison can be made which will not’ unduly show Manchester at a disadvantage. The net ordinary expenditure, then, of Manchester averaged