The mode in which such emoluments are at present wasted in the course of administration under the Building Acts, and the extent of science and skill that might be obtained for all purposes by the same amount of money, may be seen by the rate of surveyors’ emoluments for a single town. I submit, for example, the town of Leeds. There the average rate of increase of houses having been 855 per annum, and of families 940, it may be assumed that they will continue to increase at the same rate, that is, of two new houses and three-tenths per diem, which, if they were only fourth-rate houses, would be required to pay in fees 4l. 12s. per diem for two or three hours’ service at the ordinary rate of payment to private surveyors. If we bear in mind the evidence as to the character of the past appointments, and of the works themselves, and consider that, where no securities are taken for qualifications, none will be found except by accident, the contrast with the payment for the services of men of superior qualifications will be clearly perceived. Such an amount of emolument would defray the expense of a whole Board of superior officers at the rate of pay to the officers of the corps of engineers:—
| Board of Officers. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £. | s. | d. | ||
| 1 | Colonel | 1 | 6 | 3 |
| 1 | Lieutenant-colonel | 0 | 18 | 1 |
| 2 | Captains, at 11s. 1d. | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 2 | First lieutenants, at 6s. 10d. | 0 | 13 | 8 |
| 2 | Second ditto, at 5s. 7d. | 0 | 11 | 2 |
| 4 | 11 | 4 | ||
Or if unity of direction and execution were required, the staff of officers and men at the rate of pay for general service from the public would be as follows. The rate of pay therein stated is subsistence pay: the half-fees for every alteration made in a building would in most cases suffice for the extra pay given to officers and men in active service:—
| £. | s. | d. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Captain | 0 | 11 | 1 |
| 2 | First lieutenants | 0 | 13 | 8 |
| 3 | Second ditto | 0 | 16 | 9 |
| 1 | Colour-sergeant | 0 | 3 | 0½ |
| 3 | Sergeants, at 2s. 6½d. | 0 | 7 | 7½ |
| 6 | Corporals, at 2s. 2½d. | 0 | 13 | 3 |
| 22 | Privates, at 1s. 2½d. | 1 | 6 | 7 |
| 4 | 12 | 0 |
The high rates of remuneration ordinarily given for fragments of practically irresponsible service, would not only serve to defray the expense of direction by scientific officers, but of execution by trained subordinate officers.
The following return will afford a display of the comparative rate of emoluments in other towns from fees on the ordinary scale of surveyors’ fees:—
| Rate of Increase of Families per Annum. | Rate of Increase of Houses per Annum. | No. of New Houses per Diem. | Rate of Surveyors’ Fees per Diem for Fourthclass Houses. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £. | s. | d. | ||||
| Liverpool | 1205 | 638 | 17 10 | 3 | 8 | 0 |
| Leeds | 940 | 855 | 23 10 | 4 | 12 | 0 |
| Manchester | 590 | 589 | 16 10 | 3 | 4 | 0 |
| Birmingham | 561 | 474 | 13 10 | 2 | 12 | 0 |
For the construction of efficient works for drainage, it is shown that science is indispensable. If scientific officers be chosen for this one purpose, if the objectionable mode of remuneration by fees be preserved, since they are required to inspect the foundations of houses for the purpose of drainage, they might for one-fourth of the proposed fee be required to give inspection to the remainder of the work, and the process of double certificates and divided responsibility be saved. Even if the amount of work were in particular places too great to be performed by one person, it would be better, and less expensive, that it should be performed by him through an assistant, for whose defaults he should be responsible. A reduction of the accustomed fees to one-fourth, or of the aggregate emoluments obtainable under a general Building Act to 15,000l. or 20,000l. per annum would still entail the loss of so much money that might serve to secure superior scientific service; whilst in the less populous districts the payment for the separate duty of verifying the fact of compliance with the provisions of the Act would be too small to ensure the service of competent and responsible officers.
Besides the evils inherent in narrow districts, and the splitting of connected functions which prevent the application of science by preventing the appointment of scientific officers, there are other evils attendant on such small jurisdictions and separation of functions, namely, in the mode in which the money for such expenditure is levied. The popular jealousy is excited by the further multiplication of unnecessary offices, as of clerks and collectors, but real annoyance is given by the consequent increased expense of separate collections. The prevalent repugnance to direct taxation in any shape has hitherto been greatly owing to the cause of grievances experienced in the number and oppressiveness of the collections incidental to the ordinary local taxation. Those collections confuse and obstruct the rate payers’ economy. Where there are a number of rates collected at different periods, some are forgotten and not provided for; and when demanded, they fall with the inconvenience and create the irritation of a new tax. The householder may have paid the collector of his poor’s rates, then the collector of his assessed taxes, then the collector of the land tax, then the collector of the watch rates, then the collector of his paving rates, then his lighting rates, then his water rates, and then he thinks he has done, when a collector calls to demand the payment of the church rates; he may have paid him, when another collector appears to demand the payment of a sewers’ rate for two years, probably for the period of a former tenant, and for which the tenant on whom the demand is levied receives no apparent advantage. A witness says[[45]] (2231), “In Limehouse there had not been a sewer built for 100 and odd years, and there are 2000 houses, and not a sewer to them.” Another states (2066), “In one case a sewer rate of 6d. in the pound was levied for 10 years, without even surface drainage;” and in that case the party paid another rate to a trust for paving, lighting, and making drainage. “We could claim six years,” says another witness (860); “three years’ rates in arrear, as against former occupiers, were levied on the incoming tenants” (1798).
In a house receiving no benefit, the occupier, having refused to pay the rate ten years, and having paid it but once in 1827, the commissioners, when he left (1834) the house, “distrained on the new comer, and tore down the corn-bin,” &c. His solicitor previously wrote to them that the occupier was out of town, and wished them to abstain from taking any violent measures, at the same time offering on his part to refer the matter to any competent person (2328). In another case of aggravated proceeding, Mr. William Baker, who was clerk to a like commission, complained of the state of the sewerage, and of the rates in another commission. He did not resist the rate, “for he knew very well what the powers of the commissioners are, and it was not worth his while to resist so strong a body.” The assessments of sewers’ rates are seldom strictly legal.