exact local knowledge can enable the cottages in each farm to be distinguished and the total rack rent of farms brought under easy inspection. Sometimes farm cottages do not appear at all but are included in the "buildings "-sometimes, too, farmhouses are rated separately as houses and put in a different part of the rate, but more often farm buildings are included in the rating. with the house. Occasionally a large number of cottages belonging to one owner will be rated in one sum, with one description. Where the landowner is also tithe owner, the tithe is generally rated in one sum separately, but frequently is given divided, either following the appropriate property, or in a group at the end; in a few cases it is not distinguished but is included in the main rating. Sporting rights, too, are dealt with in every possible way-the commonest is one rating to cover all the land in the parish under one owner, but it is not infrequently divided into several main groups, while in some districts it is carefully rated separately for each holding, however small, either following the holding or given in a group at the end, but in many cases the rights are not distinguished at all. These different methods have a great influence upon the closeness with which the ratings are watched by ratepayers and overseers. However much the finances of the rate, when once collected, may be systematised by Government audit, through all rating practice each locality seems to be a law unto itself, and with many quaint survivals, local customs stand, like stagnant pools, throughout the land. Now it is obvious that although the poor rate is our only continuous record of property, original in constitution (since the income tax assessment takes it as a ground plan), in these matters of form, the greater precision, more frequent revision, and more homogeneous construction of the latter, would, in a compulsory uniform system, rectify many of these defects and systematise the whole. But for comprehensive detail, exact area, and precision in ownership and description, the new valuation must be what the ordnance survey was to all that preceded it, and such details reaching the local valuation list ultimately through the medium of the tax assessments would mark a new epoch in rural rating.

Interesting, however, as matters of form may be, it is the actual figures of the rate that call for closest consideration. It must be admitted at the outset that each decade shows a great improvement in the poor rate, and a closer approximation to the true rack rent. The past few years have continued the advance,

1 The present writer has known as many as one hundred and twenty so treated.

though it has not room to be so marked as formerly. The gross tax assessments exceeded the gross estimated rental (after adjustments to cover exactly the same ground) by over 10 per cent. in the 'seventies; the difference fell to 77 in 1884, 64 in 1889, under 5 in 1896, and 4 in 1897. The comparative figures have not been published for some years, but from a careful inspection of the crude totals it may be inferred that the difference rose considerably in 1898, and again in 1903 (both new assessment years)-in the latter case to probably over 8 per cent., whence it has sunk again possibly to 5 per cent., but the new assessment of 1910 will doubtless widen the gap again, a rise of eight or nine millions in the total gross value assessed being probable. As already suggested, the total difference represents a balance of differences, and is only a rough test of real approximation. There are still some unions, even semi-urban in character, in which no effort is yet made to place old or new property upon a rack-rental basis, and while a rough fairness is observed between houses, they stand as low as one-half the true value, and even less. It can only be inertia which resists change, for County Councils in computing local contributions, in nearly all cases, are not now in any way deceived, taking precautionary measures allowed by statute to secure uniformity between localities. Moreover, the union authorities themselves increasingly take advantage of their statutory power of reference to the tax assessments, to correct their deficient cases periodically. In most considerable towns, long leases and varying conditions as to repairs for houses are recognised factors dealt with on some systematic plan, but in smaller places they are often ignored, and the actual rent paid is regarded as finally accurate. Rural committees frequently regard as fanciful any suggested adjustment on systematic lines to a common denominator of annual rack rent, owner doing repairs, while to the assistant overseer it is Greek. As one example of the effect of revision and comparison with the tax

It is a common mistake to imagine that the total assessments each year faithfully represent total real values and their changes. They coincide in new assessment years-possibly the assessments for several reasons are slightly in excess --but then the assessments fall behind owing to statutory limitations in intervening years. In those years reduced values are given full effect in the totals, but no increases are registered, except for new properties and structural changes. When a new assessment is made, few properties are lower, but many must be higher-so much "slack" has to be taken up. Neglect of this important fact vitiates many conclusions.-Mr. W. H. Mallock in "Phantom Millions" (The Nineteenth Century, November, 1909) draws important inferences on the subject of foreign investments which are considerably affected by consideration of the limitations of valuation from year to year.

assessment, one may mention that in Bournemouth in 1904, according to the local Press at the time, the rateable value rose from £476,256 to £551,455, or 16 per cent., as against a (normal) rise of 3 per cent. in the preceding year, thus enabling the rate in the £, despite increased expenditure, to be kept down to the comfortable figure of 5s. Cottage property is the class most commonly under-rated, despite the fact that on many country estates the rents paid by labourers, &c., are only one-half to two-thirds of the competitive value which the rate attempts to gauge. Houses generally in rural districts are below rental values, even when let, but those occupied by their owners are more conspicuously so, and the defect extends well into the small towns. But one of the most surprising features about rural areas is the large number of farms of medium size that are over-rated-in many cases the figures have not been altered for several decades, and they were at one time perhaps quite correct. There are a number of reasons. The farmers who are aware that the total* gross ratings on their holdings should not exceed their rent (if let at rack rent) less the tithe paid, are not really numerous, and even those in the ordinary course do not have the gross figures brought under their notice. They see the rateable values on their rate demands, but do not know how these should be arrived at from the gross figures. Since the Tithe Act, 1891, the number of cases where the tenant pays the tithe has become fewer and fewer, and it is now rare for a tenant to know what the tithe is upon his farm-in fact, even owners are frequently unable to apportion total tithe over the various holdings without great trouble. The over-rating is most conspicuous where the farm extends into several parishes, for the authorities in each parish have little chance of learning the correct proportion of the rent less tithe applicable to the part within their boundary, so that the sum rated is generally well upon the safe side, with the result that the aggregate is excessive. In such cases the farmer is less likely than ever to direct his attention to the matter as the demands are not received or paid simultaneously. Moreover, the subdivision into land, buildings, and cottages, gives a multiplicity of figures still further hindering close attention, while as he often lets the cottages to labourers at small rents he cheerfully pays the rates on them, losing sight of the fact that they, too, are included in the gross rent with which he might compare his total ratings. It might be thought that comparison with the Schedule A, income tax demand note, would open his eyes to the difference, for as this is made upon the farm in one sum covering the various

parishes, and checked by the estate agent's details, it is in most cases quite correct, but the agent often by arrangement pays duty direct, so the farmer has little opportunity, even if he had the inclination and information, to discover the difference. The complexity of the calculation would in any case be enough, but what has been in the past is often taken for granted, and most ratepayers give attention to changes in the rate in the £ rather than to the correctness of the value. Again, it would be thought that at the times when changes have been made (since the days when the rents were higher and ratings possibly correct) attention would have been drawn to the matter, and corresponding rate reductions obtained, but rent reductions have seldom been made. suddenly enough to give the necessary stimulus-they have started by temporary annual remissions which have ended in becoming permanent. Sudden reductions may often have accompanied new tenancies, and thus no attention has been drawn to the ratings. This class of excessive rating appears to be most prevalent, as might be expected, where agricultural values have declined considerably, and in some measure coincides with areas where the old land tax is at a high rate, or at its present statutory maximum of a shilling in the £-in other words, where the fixed. parish quota can now be met, on declining values, only by a high rate. If, however, the present marked tendency to improved values continues, the excess in rating may be largely neutralised. Of course, where a parish consists entirely of over-rated farms. little could be gained by a general adjustment, the total sum to be paid remaining the same, but in many areas the result must be a wholesale shifting of rate burdens from farm to cottage property. The ultimate effect due to any change in the imperial grant (Agricultural Rates Act, 1896) need not be considered here.

When business property is reviewed, there is no doubt that the pressure upon the actual centre of business (even in towns with a population not exceeding 15,000) is yearly getting greater, although upon the edge of the shop area, where residence proper begins, it may alter little or become less. It is now no uncommon thing for the owner of a centrally-situated property, upon the expiration of a long lease, to continue a tenancy yearly upon the old terms-for the tenant can very likely afford no more-waiting for one of the large multiple shop companies to come to terms. at a figure fifty or a hundred per cent. above the old rent. The local rate generally lags behind this class of property to an appreciable extent.

The consideration of the large country house is interesting.

The "benefit" principle and the "faculty" principle are sufficiently confused in our rating system, but in so far as the latter is considered to predominate when we are thinking of residents in ordinary dwelling houses, we find it carried out very ineffectively. In the first place, if the burden is not progressive but only proportional, it is of doubtful fairness; in the second, it is not even proportional, but rather regressive, for it is proportioned to house-value, and house-value bears rapidly less and less proportion to income as it proceeds up the scale. But in the third place, it is still further regressive, for rack rental itself becomes feebler as an expression of the real value of house accommodation as it increases. In ordinary areas there is competition and a nicely graded comparative scale, and the ratio the defined "annual value" bears to capital cost may not begin to fall until we deal with the largest houses. But in sparsely populated areas, for houses occupied by their owners, there is no graded scale for comparison-what a house will let for "by the year is quite problematical, and at best has borne but a small proportion to its cost of erection, the falling off beginning perhaps as low as £100 annual value in places. At the present time, however, the remarkable rise in letting value of country mansions in many localities in the home counties (or within a fair distance from large towns) due doubtless to motoring facilities, may set a new standard of comparison, and lead to a valuation of this class of property more in harmony with its value (as an expression of the faculty principle) than hitherto. But it is just here that local inertia is at its maximum, though territorial power may be neither expressed, implied, nor desired. The inclination to let these larger ratings alone, with no certain standard for alteration, is one of the most notable features of small local assessing bodies. This is hardly to be wondered at when the results of some cases dealt with on appeal to Sessions are considered. And it is just here that a central influence would find it most difficult to be effective. It is only fair to remark that any such failure to carry out the ability principle has been partly compensated by the rating of woodlands for some years considerably above their value according to actual commercial yield and the general rating of estate cottages well above the non-competitive rents received. Uniform valuation would not necessarily affect railways, canals, water-works, &c. (which are not dealt with at all in the property tax assessment), nor mills and factories, the valuation of which for property tax, being a direct deduction in computing profits for Schedule D, is not of the greatest moment.