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MR. A. W. FLUX, M.A., ON CITY GOVERNMENT AND

about 27s. 6d. per inhabitant, in the laat five years, besides 6s. 3d. per inhabitant in the last three on account of the Skip Canal. The net ordinary expenditure of Copenhagen in 1894-98 averaged £596,000, or 35s. Od. per inhabitant, approximately. With the Ship Canal, Manchester’s net municipal outlay did not exceed that of Copenhagen without any such enormous burden.* But an important difference arises on account of the unfortunate gystem of subsidising local expenditure from imperial funds, so that the local accounts fail to give an accurate idea of what local services really cost. The average exchequer contributions to Manchester have been, in the last five years, £116,679, though only a sum of under £9,000 on the average shows in the accounts as used in aid of the city-rate. The numerous special objects, formerly provided for separately and now included in a grant whose amount is entirely unconnected with the actual expendi- tures on these objects, absorb the rest. In addition to this is the subsidy to elementary education from imperial funds, part of which only is expended under the control of the elected representatives of Manchester. In comparing with Copenhagen, the difference on this last head must be borne in mind, since, ns stated previously, the whole cost which taxation of any kind bears in relation to public elementary education in Copenhagen is at present borne directly by the city taxes. There are, how- ever, exchequer contributions in respect of police, lunatics, certain hospital charges, and a share of the special old-age relief expen­ diture. The last accounts, as a x>le, for about half the exchequer contribution to Copenhagen outlay. All these together, with one or two trifling additional items and a considerable extra grant for a special purpose in the first two of the years 1894-98, averaged over that period about £45,000 per year. The amount raised by local taxes over these years averaged £418,000, as * In the Copenhagen outlay is inciuded the net cost of Foor Relief, and of the new Old Age Relief. These averaged £115,000 per year in 1894-98, or 6s. 9d. per inhabitant per annuro. The expenses of Poor Relief in Manchester averaged not less than 6s. per inhabitant per annum. This consideratiou alters the aspect of the comparison in the text, showing ordinary municipal expenditure per inhabitant at about the same level in the two cities.