plants, and a variety of other public utilities. The enormously
increased activity of the town and urban district councils in respect
to "municipal trading" within the past two score years has aroused
widespread controversy. The purposes involved have been, in the main,
two--to avert the evils of private monopoly and to obtain from
remunerative services something to set against the heavy
unremunerative expenditures rendered necessary by existing sanitary
legislation. And, although opposed by reason of the outlays which it
requires and the invasion of the domain of private enterprise which it
constitutes, the device of municipal ownership is being ever more
widely adopted, as in truth it is also in Germany and other European
countries.[272] Aside from its general functions, the borough councils
is in particular a sanitary authority, and among its most important
tasks is the execution of regulations concerning drainage, housing,
markets, hospitals, and indeed the entire category of matters provided
for in the long series of Public Health acts. The expenditures of the
council as a municipal authority are met from a fund made up of fees,
fines, and other proceeds of administration, together with the income
from a borough rate, which is levied on the same basis as the poor
rate; its expenditures as a sanitary authority are met from a fund
raised by a general district rate. To assist in the administration of
education, sanitation, and police, grants are made regularly by
Parliament.[273]

[Footnote 272: Ashley, Local and Central
Government, 42.]

[Footnote 273: The best of existing works upon the
general subject of English local government is J.
Redlich, and F. W. Hirst, Local Government in
England, 2 vols. (London, 1903). There are several
convenient manuals, of which the most useful are P.
Ashley, English Local Government (London, 1905); W.
B. Odgers, Local Government (London, 1899), based
on the older work of M. D. Chalmers; E. Jenks, An
Outline of English Local Government (2d ed.,
London, 1907); R, S. Wright and H. Hobhouse, An
Outline of Local Government and Local Taxation in
England and Wales (3d ed., London, 1906); and R. C.
Maxwell, En