ngland and Wales.

Finance.

As a general rule, all the expenses of carrying into execution the
Public Health Acts in an urban district fall upon a fund which is
called the general district fund, and that fund is provided by means
of a rate called the general district rate. To this there are some
exceptions. First, in the case of boroughs where from the time of the
first adoption of the Sanitary Acts these expenses have been paid out
of the borough rate, the expenses continue to be so paid; and in an
urban district which was formerly subject to an Improvement Act, the
expenses may be payable out of the improvement rate authorized by that
act. The general rule, however, prevails over by far the greater part
of England and Wales. The general district rate is made and levied on
the occupiers of all kinds of property for the time being assessable
to any rate for the relief of the poor, subject to a few exceptions
and conditions. Of these the first is that the owner may be rated
instead of the occupier, at the option of the urban authority, where
the value of the premises is under L10, where the premises are let to
weekly or monthly tenants, or where the premises are let in separate
apartments, or the rents become payable or are collected at any
shorter period than quarterly. When the owner is rated he must be
assessed upon a certain proportion only of the net annual value of the
premises. The owners or occupiers of certain specified properties are
assessed in respect of the same in the proportion of one-fourth part
only of the net annual value thereof. These properties include tithes,
tithe commutation rent charge, land used as arable, meadow or pasture
ground only, or as woodlands, market gardens or nursery grounds,
orchards, allotments, any land covered with water such as the
reservoir of a waterworks company, or used only as a canal or
towing-path of the same, or as a railway constructed under the powers
of any Act of Parliament for public conveyance. The reason for these
partial exemptions apparently is that sanitary arrangements are made
chiefly for the benefit of houses and buildings, while the properties
just enumerated do not receive the same amount of benefit. The only
other point to be noticed in this connexion is that an urban council
may divide their district into parts for all or any of the purposes of
the act, rating each part separat