FeBBUARY 4, 189Ö.
THE ESTATES GAZETTE
182
forms an admirable manual for the use of those who desire to understand thoroughly the whole bearing of the matter. The Commissioners point out that there is no class of ratepayers “ whose basis of assessment results in the contribution of so large a proportion of income towards local taxation,” and they therefore conclude that the case of the clerical owner of tithe “ may perfectly be met by some special measure of relief.” That, in brief, is the conclusion of the whole matter, and it is the only sound and sensible conclusion that was possible. We need not spend much space in tracing the steps which led up to this decision ; but we may quote one very significant passage from the report. The Commissioners say : “ Since 1836 tithe rent-charge has decreased in value to the extent of over 80 per cent. During this period the Courts have gradually deprived the incumbent of deductions which at one time were allowed in ascertaining the rateable value. Moreover, many rates for new purposes have been placed upon tithe rent-charge, which cannot have any effect in the direction of improving that property, and the incumbent cannot shift the incidence upon others, according to the circumstances of supply and demand. The operation of the Agricultural Rates Act, 1896, in districts where rates have increased, reductions in assessments, and the under-valuation, of agricultural land, have, it is said, in some cases, thrown additional burdens upon incumbents.” That is, in itself, quite sufficient to prove the case up to the hilt. It is obviously to the last degree unjust that the clergy alone should be rated upon the gross value of their official property without any of those deductions which are allowed to other people. And the terrible fact of the heavy fall in the value of tithe rent-charge makes the claim for relief all the stronger. In the face of this Report and of the letter from Lord Salisbury which was published a few days ago, there is no room for doubt that the matter may well be taken in hand and a grievance redressed which ought to have been removed by the Agricultural Rating Act.
The other report .to which we have referred deals with the basis of valuation, and makes a long series of recommendations for securing uniformity. It is impossible, the Commissioners say with perfect truth, to revise the existing system of local taxation until a uniform basis of valuation has been obtained. They draw a pretty picture of the existing chaos. There may be as many as five different valuations existing concurrently in the same district ; there is no uniform system governing the length of time during which a valuation list shall be operative ; there is no recognised scale of deductions for arriving at rateable values ; rates are collected in the same area at different times by different collectors, acting under the orders of different authorities. It is, therefore, recommended that there should be one valuation authority, which should be appointed ad hoc from the members of county and town councils, and in boroughs from among the members of the Town Council. The valuation lists, we are glad to see, are to be prepared “ whenever practicable” by professional surveyors, which is certainly a move in the right direction ; revaluations are to take place every five years ; a maximum scale of deductions is to be provided ; and all rates are to be levied upon one demand note. Here, then, we have the basis of a good and sensible working arrangement ; but it will, of course, be hopeless to attempt to legislate until the whole of the Commissioners’ recommendations are before us. Meanwhile there is plenty of matter for discussion in uhe two reports we have got.
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LONDON, FEBRUARY 4, 1899.
THE RATING OF TITHE.
Of the two interim reports which have this week been issued by the Royal Commission on Local Taxation, the second is by far the more important. The first deals with the valuation of property for the purposes of rating, and with the collection of rates—matters to which we shall return presently. Interesting and important as the matters dealt with in that document unquestionably are, they are, for immediate practical purposes, of considerably smaller moment than the report upon the rating of tithe. That report is a triumphant confirmation of the case for the clergy, which has so often been stated in these columns. It is true that it is not absolutely unanimous, but the dissentients are only two or three and their names are not such as to detract seriously from the value of the conclusions arrived at by the majority. Mr. Arthur O’Connor, indeed, has to go back Do the Book of Deuteronomy to find a statement of “ the true use whereto tithes should be employed.” Whatever may be the authority of that particular writing from other points of view, we shall not be accused of irreverence if we say that it is nothing germane to the question of how best to assess rates in modern England. No consideration of the origin of tithe, or of the uses to •which it was put, is to the purpose in arriving at a reasonable opinion upon this subject.
The Commissioners have taken a great mass of evidence, and their report is so exhaustive a history of the subject that it
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Tuesday, June 13. Tuesday, June 20. Tuesday, June 27. Tuesday, July 4. Tuesday, July 11. Tuesday, July 18. Tuesday, July 25. Tuesday, August 1. Tuesday, August 15. Tuesday, October 10. Tuesday, October 24.
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SURVEYORS’ INSTITUTION EXAMINATIONS. The Thirteenth Annual Courses of Lectures.
CANDIDATES (London and Country) for the Professional Assooiateship, Fellowship, Direot Fellowship, Special Sanitary Science and Preliminary Examinations can obtain SYLLABUSES with list of prize winners, 22 out of the 36 whioh have been given since 1888 (inoluding all the Fellowship prizes and gold medals yet given). Particulars as to the very successful results at the last and previous Examinations and terms on application to tne Secretary, Surveyors’ Leotures, 2, Pall Mall East, Charing Cross, S.W.