Chapter V: Front Matter (5)

The accounts of the receipts and expenditure of the county council are
made up for the twelve months ending the 31st March in each year, and
are audited by a district auditor. The form in which the accounts must
be made up is prescribed by the Local Government Board. The auditor is
a district auditor appointed by the Local Government Board under the
District Auditors Act 1879, and in respect of the audit the council is
charged with a stamp duty, the amount of which depends on the total of
the expenditure comprised in the financial statement. Before each
audit the auditor gives notice of the time and place appointed, and
the council publish the appointment by advertisement. A copy of the
accounts has to be deposited for public inspection for seven days
before the audit. The auditor has the fullest powers of investigation;
he may require the production of any books or papers, and he may
require the attendance before him of any person accountable. Any owner
of property or ratepayer may attend the audit and object to the
accounts, and either on such objection or on his own motion the
auditor may disallow any payment and surcharge the amount on the
persons who made or authorized it. Against any allowance or surcharge
appeal lies to the High Court if the question involved is one of law,
or to the Local Government Board, who have jurisdiction to remit a
surcharge if, in the circumstances, it appears to them to be fair and
equitable to do so. It will be seen that this is really an effective
audit.

Revenue of county council.

The sources of revenue of the council are the exchequer contribution,
income from property and fees, and rates. Before 1888 large grants of
money had been made annually to local authorities in aid of local
taxation. Such grants represented a contribution out of taxation for
the most part arising out of property other than real property, while
local taxation fell on real property alone. By the act of 1888 it was
provided that for the future such annual grants should cease, and that
other payments should be made instead thereof. The commissioners of
Inland Revenue pay into the Bank of England, to an account called "the
local taxation account," the sums ascertained to be the proceeds of
the duties collected by them in each county on what are called local
taxation licences, which include licences for the sale of intoxicating
liquor, licences on dogs, guns, establishment licences, &c. The amount
so ascertained to have been collected in each county is paid under
direction of the Local Government Board to the council of that county.
The commissioners of Inland Revenue also pay into the same account a
sum equal to 1-1/2% on the net value of personal property in respect
of which estate duty is paid. Under the Local Taxation (Customs and
Excise) Act 1890, certain duties imposed on spirits and beer (often
referred to as "whisky money") are also to be paid to "the local
taxation account." The sums so paid in respect of the duties last
above mentioned, and in respect of the estate duty and spirits and
beer additional duties, are distributed among the several counties in
proportion to the share which the Local Government Board certify to
have been received by each county during the financial year ending the
31st March 1888, out of the grants theretofore made out of the
exchequer in aid of local rates. The payments so made out of "the
local taxation account" to a county council are paid to the county
fund, and carried to a separate account called "the Exchequer
contribution account." The money standing to the credit of this
account is applied: (i.) in paying any costs incurred in respect
thereof or otherwise chargeable thereon; (ii.) in payment of the sums
required by the Local Government Act 1888 to be paid in substitution
for local grants; (iii.) in payment of the new grant to be made by the
county council in respect of the costs of union officers; and (iv.) in
repaying to "the general county account" of the county fund the costs
on account of general county purposes for which the whole area of the
county (including boroughs other than county boroughs) is liable to be
assessed to county contribution. Elaborate provision is made for the
distribution of the surplus (if any), with a view to securing a due
share being paid to the quarter sessions boroughs.

The payments which the county council have to make in substitution for
the local grants formerly made out of Imperial funds include payments
for or towards the remuneration of the teachers in poor-law schools
and public vaccinators; school fees paid for children sent from a
workhouse to a public elementary school; half of the salaries of the
medical officer of health and the inspector of nuisances of district
councils; the remuneration of registrars for births and deaths; the
maintenance of pauper lunatics; half of the cost of the pay and
clothing of the police of the county, and of each borough maintaining
a separate police force. In addition to the grants above mentioned,
the county council is required to grant to the guardians of every
poor-law union wholly or partly in their county an annual sum for the
costs of the officers of the union and of district schools to which
the union contributes. Another source is the income of any property
belonging to the council, but the amount of this is usually small. The
third source of revenue consists of the fees received by the different
officers of the county councils or of the joint-committee. For
example, fees received by the clerk of the peace, inspectors of
weights and measures, and the like. These fees are paid into the
county fund, and carried either to "the general county account" or, if
they have been received in respect of some matter for which part only
of the county is assessed, then to the special account to which the
rates levied for that purpose are carried. The remaining source of
income of a county council is the county rate, the manner of levying
which is hereafter stated.

Powers transferred from quarter sessions.

Of the powers and duties of county councils, it may be convenient to treat of these first, in so far as they are transferred to or conferred on them by the Local Government Act 1888, under which they were created, and afterwards in so far as they have been conferred by subsequent legislation. Before the passing of the Local Government Act 1888, the only form of county government in England was that of the justices in quarter sessions (q.v.). Quarter sessions were originally a judicial body, but being the only body having jurisdiction over the county as a whole, certain powers were conferred and certain duties imposed upon them with reference to various matters of county government from time to time. The principal object of the act of 1888 was to transfer these powers and duties from the quarter sessions to the new representative body--the county council; and it may be said that substantially the whole of the administrative business of quarter sessions was thus transferred.

The subjects of such transfer include (i.) the making, assessing and
levying of county, police, hundred and all rates, and the application
and expenditure thereof, and the making of orders for the payment of
sums payable out of any such rate, or out of the county stock or
county fund, and the preparation and revision of the basis or standard
for the county rate. With regard to the county rate, a few words of
description may be sufficient here. The council appoint a committee
called a county rate committee, who from time to time prepare a basis
or standard for county rate, that is to say, they fix the amount at
which each parish in the county shall contribute its quota to the
county rate. As a general rule the poor-law valuations are followed,
but this is not universally the case, some county councils adopting
the assessment to income tax, schedule A, and others forming an
independent valuation of their own. The overseers of any parish
aggrieved by the basis may appeal against it to quarter sessions, and
it is to be noticed that this appeal is not interfered with, the
transfer of the duties of justices relating only to administrative and
not to judicial business. When a contribution is required from county
rate, the county council assess the amount payable by each parish
according to the basis previously made, and send their precept to the
guardians of the unions comprising the several parishes in the county,
the guardians in their turn requiring the overseers of each parish to
provide the necessary quota of that parish out of the poor rate, and
the sum thus raised goes into the county fund. The police rate is made
for the purpose of defraying the expenses of the county police. It is
made on the same basis as the county rate, and is levied with it. The
hundred rate is seldom made, though in some counties it may be made
for purposes of main roads and bridges chargeable to the hundred as
distinguished from the county at large; (ii.) the borrowing of money;
(iii.) the passing of the accounts of, and the discharge of the county
treasurer; (iv.) shire halls, county halls, assize courts, the judges'
lodgings, lock-up houses, court houses, justices' rooms, police
stations and county buildings, works and property; (v.) the licensing
under any general act of houses and other places for music or for
dancing, and the granting of licences under the Racecourses Licensing