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trative auditing; banks; savings banks; the survey, measurement and 
registration of vessels. 
By the side of the Ministry of Finance is the Statistical Bureau, a 
separate institution under the minister of Finance. 
LOCAL GOVERNMENT 
As regards the participation of the State in Local Government, the 
country is divided into 16 districts (syslur) each of which is administered 
by a district magistrate (spslumadur), and 8 towns, administered by 
town magistrates (Reykjavik has also a chief of police at the head of 
affairs), over whom the ministries exercise direct control. Both district 
and town magistrates have a great variety of administrative work to 
attend to, but their chief business is the collection of taxes and customs 
and police administration. To assist the district magistrates, especially 
in police administration, there are the government-paid sheriffs 
(hreppstjérar)s one in each civil parish (hreppur), while the town 
magistrates are assisted by the police who are paid out of the muni- 
cipal funds. 
According to the constitution the right of the municipalities to manage 
their own local affairs is to be fixed by an act of parliament. 
For local administrative purposes Iceland is divided into 24 districts 
and towns. The districts are again subdivided into civil parishes, of 
which there are at present 203. Parish councils, chosen by the vo- 
ters, manage the various affairs of the parishes, chief among which 
are poor relief and local roads. The means for covering the parish ex- 
penditure are obtained by levying taxes on the voters. 
The district affairs are managed by a district council (sgslunefnd) 
composed of representatives for all the parishes in the district (one 
for each parish). The district magistrate presides over the district 
council, which manages all matters concerning the district as a whole, 
and supervises the work of the parish councils, from which an appeal 
lies to the district councils in various matters. The municipal affairs 
of the towns are guided by town councils, chosen by the voters, 
In some of the towns these councils are presided over by the town 
magistrate, in others by a mayor, elected by the town council- 
lors. Both district and town councils are under the supervision of the 
central government to which, in case of disagreement, questions may 
be submitted for settlement.