On the MUNICIPAL EXPENDITURE of the BOROUGH of BIRMINGHAM. By THOMAS AVERY, ESQ. [Read before Section F, British Association, Birmingham, September, 1865.] THE intention of this paper is to submit a brief history of the municipal expenditure of Birmingham, with the view of comparing the progress of the town in wealth and population with its increase in taxation, expenditure, and the amount of its public debt. The examination of this subject will necessarily involve the attentive consideration of many uninviting details, but the student of statistics can never be more usefully employed than in ascertaining the amount, proportion, and distribution of taxation, and its influence upon the general welfare. As the English are emphatically a self-governing community, not only in imperial legislation but in parochial, county, and municipal affairs, there is therefore the greater need that accurate knowedge and sound views, on the subject of taxation, should be diffused through all the governing classes, and I am anxious to contribute my share of effort in endeavouring to do this for Birmingham. Previously to the incorporation of the borough the town was governed by commissioners, under different Acts of Parliament, the last of which was obtained in the 9th year of the reign of King George IV, and was entitled "An Act for better paving, lighting, watching, cleansing and otherwise improving the town of Birmingham, in the county of Warwick, and for regulating the police and markets of the said town." The commissioners, by an Act of Parliament framed in the year 1851, transferred to their successors a public debt of about 112,250l., and an equivalent in valuable property described in the following schedule: Cost. Therefore, for a public debt of about 112,250l., the old commissioners transferred to the present municipal corporation property of the value of about 196,2917., besides having accomplished various important street improvements, among which may be noted the purchase and removal of the gateway and the two houses at the east end of New Street, one of which was long occupied by our quaint and pleasant historian Hutton, at a yearly rental of 81. He informs us that he removed there in the year 1750, from No. 6, Bull Street, the lesser part of which shop he occupied as a bookseller, for a weekly payment of 18. The commissioners also purchased and removed an ancient hostelry, the Wheat Sheaf Inn, which, with numerous shops, obstructed and disfigured the Bull Ring, and also other tenements clustering round the walls of St. Martin's church; besides completing several miles of sewers, forming the commencement of the present system of drainage. It was a constant subject of reproach to the commissioners that they were a self-elected body, but though it is true that their election was based upon this objectionable principle, it is nevertheless also true that they appear to have discharged their difficult and important functions with wisdom, success, and sagacity; and, as a member of the present corporation, which conducts public affairs upon a scale of far greater magnitude, and possesses much more extensive powers than its predecessors, it is with peculiar pleasure that I submit this cursory notice of their proceedings. A table is annexed of the financial results of the concluding five years of the separate government of the commissioners, from 1835 to 1839. In all of the following calculations it has been found convenient to give the population of the present limits of the borough, as nearly as it could be ascertained, but the table of the expenditure of the commissioners has been formed upon the population of the parish. The population of the decennial periods has been taken in both cases from the census tables, and that of the intermediate years has been ascertained by a percentage thereon. During the next ten years the population and expenditure increased as in Continuing these calculations for the ensuing ten years, there is the same large increase in the numbers of the population, but accompanied by a disproportionate augmentation of the public expenditure. Taking the average population and amount of expenditure, we have the following results for three decennial periods : Though the population had increased from 159,802 in 1835 to 318,732 in 1864, the increase in the cost of local government, in the same period, had been so much out of proportion thereto, that whilst it was 48. 5d. per head in 1835, it had become 10s. 10d. per head in 1864. Surely this grave fact eminently deserves the most anxious consideration of the members of the council of this borough, and of all who wish well to municipal institutions. For many years this town has enjoyed a remarkable measure of almost uninterrupted prosperity, which has enabled the burgesses to support this heavy taxation with comparative ease; but should we again be visited with bad times, it is to be feared that it would be felt as a grievous calamity. It is, however, satisfactory to observe, that for the last several years the taxation per head has been nearly stationary, and it may be hoped that it will now begin to diminish. To give a correct view of the magnitude and variety of the subjects comprehended within the jurisdiction of the corporation, statements are appended of the income and expenditure for the year 1864, from which it will be perceived that several expensive items are included in the present municipal government, such as public baths and parks, free libraries, and a borough cemetery which did not come within the scope either of the proceedings or the powers of the commissioners. (See Appendix, pp. 88-91.) TABLE E.-Giving the Amount of the Net Unpaid Balances of the Public Debt and the Annual Charges thereon. From this statement it will appear that the increase has been as follows: VOL. XXIX. PART I. G In a former table the amount of the debt was stated, and a schedule given of the property transferred by the commissioners to the corporation, and another schedule is here added of the property now in the possession of the corporation, with its approximate value, and also of the important public works and improvements executed by that body : Sewerage works Lunatic Asylum........... Baths and Washhouses... Cost. £ 170,000 79,800 100,000 46,527 11,793 Police Stations Part of Public Offices Aston Park.............. Part of Smithfield Market Adderley Park, the gift of C. B. Adderley, Esq., say.... 13,657 19,241 20,000 10,000 |