§ Mr. CROFTasked the President of the Board of Trade what is the amount of national and local expenditure, respectively, per head of the population per annum in the United Kingdom, United States of America, Germany, France, Belgium. Holland, Switzerland, and Japan, so far as these particulars are available?
§ Mr. BURNSFigures showing for a series of years the gross expenditure of the central Government and of the local authorities in this country will be found in the annual statistical abstract for the United Kingdom, and figures as to expenditure by the central Governments of most of the other countries mentioned in the question are given in the annual statistical abstract for foreign countries. I may point out that the differences between the various countries mentioned are so great in respect of the financial relations between the central Government and the local authorities, the functions of
1310Wthe public authorities generally, the extent to which they are engaged in industrial enterprises, and the form in which their accounts are rendered, that any comparison of the kind suggested in the question would, in my judgment, be practically valueless.