"COMMON GOOD" FUNDS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 112, 29 January 1918, Page 5

"COMMON GOOD" FUNDS

A. MUNICIPAL EXAMPLE FROM SCOTLAND A USEFUL IDEA Many Scottish municipalities, es* pectolly tho old' Royal burghs among them, possess n source of income which 1 is qu : te unknown to English boroughs constitute'] under the Municipal Cor- j poratious Acv (states "R.5.P.," in the j London "Daiiy News")- It consists i in property whicii is called'the Com- 1 mo.'i Goo.l Fun-'., or briefly, the Com- 1 nfon Gool TJ'is fund is held by the corporations for tlio common good of the' whole community. It is not raised be rates, and i'.s application is not subject to-the approval of the Local Government Bofc'd or to, any of_ the : rules which rotißD limit the. expenditure i of funds, whether in Scotland or in. , England, which a:e raised by a com- j puhocy levy upon the inhabitant occupiers. Where the employment of this fund is not Bpecinr\ limited by the ancient character of the burgh, the council (and iu some instances the magistrals acting with them) have very wide discmtiiin, and this has enabled many escelleui public objects to be gained in the best possible manner. ' In Aberdeen, fc instance, £15,000 was voted from tho Common Good, towards j the erection ei a technic?.' college. In Glasgow funds wre taken out of, and loaas were rais*l on the security of, tho Common Gooi for the construction of tramways, and with the loyal management "that' municipal enter- • prises enjoy ■" Scotland, thcy_ have bee:i so prof'table that tho last, instalment of a sum of £2,000,000 has been repnid this summw out of the profits. • Edinburgh maintains an observatory and the "firing of a time-gun out of its Common Good—in fact, there is hardly any public henefit, great or small, which is not within the ' compass of this ingenious Scottish municipal instrument. A Birmingham Scheme. I The subject is being taken up very warmly iu Birmingham, where an effort is being maui, to create an endowment wheh shall grow and fructify to sinr'lar advantage. : Of course, tho Scottish Royal burghs have had a long stall, for good fortune, and prudence have secured them considerable endowments, ;cb in tho caso of a little bur, ancient burgh like Tain produce a revenue "f £800 a year for a population of 1500. The origin of the Common Good varies, but that of Glasgow is typical. It began with t'>.s grant of lands by tin Archbishops ii pro-Reformation tinios, and it was added to by the secularisation of church lands after thai ' errtnt. In England jvo permitted the greedy courtiers o f Henry VIII to swallow up the vr.so possessions of the abbeys and monasteries all over the country, and thus converted what was quasi public p'cpfity into private rent- 1 rulh. In Glasgow. and in other Scottish burghs this blunder was avoided, j What the Fund Can Do. Many Scottish burghs retained the rights to levy tola on internal trade and merchandise, and these profits ha7e been invested in land, or in feurents, which is. S.Scottish invention in • the natur3 of a perpetual 'ground-rent. Legtoies and lan-Js have also been bequeathed by patriotic citizens, and instead of being wasted in doles of bread, or in almshouses—subsequently to dis* Sppeir into the maw of the Charity ommissiotiers for tl>e education of the children of the rich—all these sources 1 of in-xmo have been devoted to the . Common Good. In Glasgow this fund . f owns the markets. In Aberdeen tho ? Common Giyd has an annual income of 3 £26,00H; iu Dunfermline £4000. Hamt ilton's Common Good has a capital t value of £82,000. and a revenue of ] £7100. Kirkcudbright's income.from j. tho Common Good is £1500 a year, and ' . so on. f The proposal in Birmingham is to acclinmtiso this idea by private dona- . tlons to a Tniit Fund. The trustees, f being free frcio all statutory restrictions. as in the Scots burghs, might possibly buy lar.H needed for parks, j, road widomngs, or other publio pur- ] poses, at market value, and resell _ . to the coiporetion at cost, thus avoid--0 ing the present extravagant prices when it is knovn that/a particular ,f site i? required for public needs. At B the same time a portion of the fund , t might be set asitlo for gifts of. objects r of public benefit which 110 municipal corporation would 'be allowed to pur--3 chase out of tho rotes. There are in- , 0 finite possihl'itits in the scheme, and e its development will be watched with 3 interest.