§ Parliament has practically acquiesced in the suspension of many of these laws, for the reason that the local authorities have not the means to carry them out. All those who know anything about municipal government, especially in districts densely populated and overcrowded, are aware that they are heavily rated, and will realise that I am not exaggerating in the slightest degree when I make that statement. The rates in some districts have doubled in the course of the last twenty or thirty years. West Ham rates have gone up from 5s. to 10s. 6d. since 1890; Merthyr Tydvil has gone from 5s. 3d. to 10s. 2d.; Norwich from Vs. 11d. to 10s. 7d. [An HON. MEMBER: "These are all Labour or "Socialist."] And I will give another case, Warrington, which has gone up from 5s. 5d. to 7s. 11d.—a very considerable increase. There are some Acts of Parliament which the House has been concerning itself very much about, Acts passed by both sides, which deal with certain problems, and which are practically dead letters, because of the cost.