Early Scottish Local Government
| Date | 01 March 1946 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1946.tb03065.x |
| Published date | 01 March 1946 |
PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION
AlUNICIPALITY OF
SINGAPORE
Capital Assets
and Deferred
Charges
Sinking
Funds
s
Is
S
8,066,185
3,605,767
3,230,104
829,098
15,731,154
s
s
5,828,600 237,585
3,407,267 198,500
3,026,555
203,549
763,212 65,886
15,025,634 705,520
3;516,365 902;536
95,619,739 20,015,588
I
36,813,985
39,298,558
15,990,831
Financial
Statistics
1939
.
.
._.
Depreciation
andReserve1 Section
I
Income
1
Expenditure
I
Surplus
Funds
8,268,268
6,851,678
3,993,106
S
I
586,700
2,042,541
2,345,365
490,134
5,464,740
Rate Fund
Water
Electricity
Gas
Total
Accumulated surplus
on
Revenue Account-
$4,352,859.
Early
Scottish
Local
Government
By
W.
A.
Ross,
O.B.E.
THE year
1833
in Scotland and
1835
in England are the years generally taken
as
marking the beginning of local government in towns, these being the years
in which popular election of councils replaced under Acts of Parliament the
system generally prevalent
of
co-option or self-election. It is necessary, however,
in examining contrasts between English and Scottish local government, to
go
much further back. The present differences in structure are not of the first
importance and, with the increase of Government grants and consequent increase
of
central control, a steady process of assimilation
is
in progress. More important
than differences of mechanical structure are ditferences in the character, outlook,
and spirit of administration, and for an understanding of these we must examine
past history. The contrast then bewrnes a contrast not only between England
and Scotland but also, and
this
is more interesting, between the past and the
present.
It
is by no means clear that during the centuries there has been con-
tinuous progress.
If
Macaulay’s New Zealander,
in
some future age, were to
examine the ruins of Scotland he might reasonably conclude from
an
examina-
tion
of
the remains of the great cathedrals, abbeys and priories that in the twelfth,
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries a people very far advanced in civilisation had
inhabited Scotland, and that a long period of decline with various ups and downs
had followed; but
that
in later centuries, and particularly the eighteenth, nine-
teenth and twentieth, there was evidence of
a
high degree
of
civilisation showing
much progress in mechanics, commerce and the physical sciences. In truth,
when we leave that early period
of
Scottish history, generally known as the
Golden Age, our admiration blends with feelings of a very ditferent kind. Like
the Roman historian, when he describes any outstanding personality, we must
often say with regard to Scottish institutions
“Has
virtutes
nxzgna
diu
penscp-
bunt.”
In his
book
on the Scottish ruling elder, Professor Henderson
of
Aberdeen
University quotes David Masson as saying about the early Kirk
Sessions
that
they were half noble, half horrible.
It
must be borne in mind that these
Kirk
Sessions, with the supervisory Presbyteries, Synods and General Assemblies,
30
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