Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - First part - III. Constitution and Administration - 3. Municipal Administration. By G. Aldén, Deputy Editor, Stockholm - Self-Government of the Communities - Poor Relief
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poor relief.
253
consist of the Mayor and Aldermen, of whose appointment mention has
already been made in a preceding section (page 195). In every town
there is also elected a Board of Finance, which manages the property
of the town.
The towns, moreover, appoint a number of special boards for
certain purposes, as the care of the Poor, Public Hygiene, Building, Fire
service etc., all of which fall under the control of the Magistrates. For
towns, there are also special Police regulations issued for the
maintenance of public safety, which it is the duty of the Police authorities
to apply.
E) Certain details with regard to the finances of communities are
given in Tables 40—42. These same also include the sums dispensed
by the ecclesiastical authorities of the parishes.
The total assets of the Communities amounted in 1899 to 376-90 million
kronor, 278-74 millions of which consisted of real property. The debts made up
226-21 million kronor. As already mentioned, the general tax of the communities
is assessed according to the State-tax called General Supply, and in proportion
to the latter; the total tax of the communities, during the quinquenniums 1876/95,
amounted to respectively 7’40, 7-46, 7"5 5 and 7"6o times as much. The earlier
returns not being quite complete, there has been practically no increase.
The great forest fands which certain parishes in Dalarne and Norrland (or,
more properly speaking, the landowners within these parishes) have acquired of
recent years by the sale of the public forests, are not included in the communal
assets. These funds are sometimes very important (in the communities of Orsa
and Elfdalen 10 and 6 millions respectively) and they will, however, in future rise
in value, inasmuch as the ownership of the woods has not been sold, but only the
right of working them for a certain number of years. In such communities, rates of
all sorts are met out of these properties (even for such members who own no
land), and all public institutions of modern times (schools, roads, bridges,
railways, telephones, modern lighting, etc.) are provided and equipped in a rather
costly style — a most singular sight in parts which not long ago were considered
among the most out-of-the-way and poverty-stricken in all Sweden.
Poor Belief.
In Sweden the Public Relief of the Poor is almost exclusively in
the hands of the communities, and should therefore be treated of here in
connection with Communal Administration. — The line between Public
Poor Relief, i. e. that decreed by law, and Private Benevolence has of
låte years become rather more sharply defined. Still, however, there
are several points at which their accounts are mingled.
In former times, the care of the poor devolved in the first place on their
relations, and according to the most ancient laws, those who turned their parents
out of doors were punished. Those who became poor through no fault of their
own went round to their neighbours and asked for alms. In the Middle Ages, the
Church took the poor under her protection, and sometimes surrendered two-ninths of
the tithes to the farmer, on condition that he undertook to assist beggars. Hospices
were erected for the sick and indigent poor near churches and monasteries, and
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