The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-04-15 00:00:00

LOCA TAXATION.

Mr. lloschen'a Rati; llill has evoked the Following
correspondence in ThCimes
Mr iioschen's Rating 1.11 the meet unfriendly one to the
landed interest that lave yet seen) proposes to mess
"game" to the local rat. It will be asked how this Is to
be fleeted where a lelowner does not let his shootings
or sell his game, and 1w the quantity used for his own
table and that of his riends and left for stock is to be
avertained and valued In 99 eases not of 100 in England
the expenses of rearm n and preserving game (especially
where there are not ,any haree) In exceed the market
value of the numbers Bled. But these queries would be
premature until Mr. °when explains to Parliament upon
wLat principle be meal to Impose rates uponithat which
is not pr,,verry Isy le "game" Is not property at all
until it is so to epeak)n the owner'. larder or poulterer's
shop, and then it is in real property totid game, there-
fore, Mr Gov:tem has o right to assess for ratna until by
Act of Parliament he lakes it property, which would en)
tirely change our legtation with respect to it, and if he
means to rate It wheMead, why le It to be an exception to
other per.orin/ property
1 remain, P. your obedient servant,
Stratford-place, Aprlo. MALNIESBUII.

A correspondent listened your attention to Mr. lllschen's
scheme for making Iftilords bear hall the burden of the
rates, the whole of with the occupier Is now supposed to
pay. " Fair Clay " tale but a just view of the matter, and
In the case he cites thowner would have great cause to com-
plain. As a tenant rmer, with offiy a tenant's interest
In the question, I repilate any desire for relief under such
a hollow proposal, believe the whole class of tenant
farmers In the kingdor would say the same. The Chambers
of Agriculture would torn the Idea, and certainly 'or Massey
Lopes, when he advocted their cause in the House, never
thought of such a melon as a means of relief, for the simple
reason that it could I no way tend to ease the burden of
which the ratepayers loudly complain.

We ask for redress at as farmers or landlords or tenants,
but as ratepayers. Or grievance is not that the tenant has
hitherto paid what shold be a landlord's charge—we believe
it Is shared between tern—but that certain properties and
means of Income heath° whole of a burden of which other
properties and meanef income, at present exempt, ought to
bear a part as well. i other words, six parts out of seven
of the income of this suntry are exempt from ally payment
for local public rates, till the seventh has to bear the entire
burden. . . .

If the proposed 'come is Intended for the relief of the
tenant farmer, It is misty unfair to the landlord, or simply
ridiculous as a meansor the object In view. It the tenant
ha. a lease, Mr. Cloecen's plan would be a direct confisca-
tion of the amount of the rates from the landlord's pocket
into that of the tenan; inasmuch as the latter at the time
of his hire agreed to sy a charge which the law, if altered,
will enable him to (bow on the landlord. If the occupier
has a yearly hire, thi landlord lass merely to give notice
that in future the ren will be as at present, pito; the esti-
mated amount of rate and a little more, perhaps, for con-
tingencies, and no thlenants' outgokegs for rent and rates
wal be the same an Lama Yours faithfully,
11EEMAN BIE,ELL.
Playford, Ipswich, yell B.

What Is a parish?
In the part of tinglnd south of a line drawn from Eli.
rulugham to the Homer, a parish is generally a moderate
extent of land, with . church and overseers and highway
surveyors, and not utrequeutly contains ten than 100 In-
habitants.

In the parts north o that line, a parish contains from one
to fifty townships, wit one ancient church, and with Over-
gears and surveyors 10 each township,
tratance, the pvish of Wholly, in Lancashire, contains
let 000 acres and 1:,(000 Inhabitants, lying in Ilaslingden.
Burnley, Ulitheroe, rid Blackburn Unions, in 50 different
townships. There an 12 churches with ecclesiastical dis-
tricts within It ; Int these districts are not necessarily
coterminous with tornships, and are not recognized am civil
divisions.

Ihe parish of Le do, in Yorkshire, contains 200,t00 in-
habit.ts, in Leeds and limiest Unions, in 10 townships,
with 44 churches wile ecclesiastical districts.

The parish or Presbury, in Cheshire. contains 63,000 wet
and 70,000 inhabitasts, In 34 townships, with 2o churches
with ecclesiastical Chtricts.

The parish nr.Lambester, In Durham, contains 40,000 acre.
rad 20,0t0 inhabltaits, In Is township., with 11 churches
with eccleliwitlcal, bit cot civil, district.. . .

nu the other hand, there are many townships containing
ten than 500 acres and but one farmhouse with or without
dependent cottages.
IG niii ..tortroat thq 1.10.11 el As
to make it an efficient unit for local taxation.
I am, Sir, pair obedient servant,

STATI,L

Having twice introduced • 'Bill for the purpose, smolt
Other thing., of making game the property of the ocoureer,
may I be permitted to say a few words on Lord hisimealury's
letter in your columns of this day
IL in, of counts, quite true that there is at proent no
property in game while alive. Still, however, mere the
occupier either as landlord or as tenant has thi right to
shoot, that right forms part of the rateable ',lce of the
occupation, and is actually, though not co n0n,,,, the sub-
ject of rate. If, however, the owner reserver the right of
shooting to his own hands, that right of ahoting payano
rate, for the value of the occupation nine pro (onto
diminished, the occupier is rated on a enminlshed value,
while the owner pays nothing, because the privilege he
retains is not legally the subject of rate. At the same time,
as the rate to be raised in a fixed sum that portion of the
rate which the occupier would pay if me game were not re-
served, and which he doe. not pay wesuae the owner has
reserved it, in of course paid by at the ratepayers among
them. .

•,---
Thls hardship will ceases. coos as game made the pro-
perty of the occupier. It will be value,' m part of the re-
turns of the farm, and the rate fixed reCordlngly. If the
owner wishes to rehire the game, Slat will be a matter of
private arrangement with the occupfer. but • rate will in all
cases be paid on game.
tile hardly necessary to observe‘hat if Lord Sialmesbury's
plea Is a good one, that he oughrnot to be rated in respect
of game which does not pay Its expenses, any occupier who
loses by farming will have a ryht to plead exemption from
rates on precisely similar grtwuda —I am, Sir, your obedient
servant, A. !tel.'. A,TLE.
• •• -•

_
51, Queen'slate.terraCe, April 11.
The subjoined letter reached me from Mr. Goschen last
night, and its tnsertiOn in The Tones may lm useful.
Like a good many .1 your readers, I had experienced a
certain stoppigs or breath at the first sight of Mr Goschen's
speech, and a vision of an income-tax of half-a-crown in the
pound floated hf ore my eyes, as it seems to have done
before those One writer of a remarkably cheerful prophetic
article in the Slew/icy Review. But, as it seems to me on
consideration lepoasi hie that the Government—not being the
c,onrnune jut yet—could have in contemplation a retrospec-
tive measure which, among its minor consequences, would
have invehed the revision of every assessment to succession
Duty exiseng, I addressed a direct inquiry to Mr. Goscben,
Who repPes as follows :
" Admiralty, April la, 1,71.
se,—l am directed by Mr. Goschen to acknowledke the
Wept of your letter of the 4th inst.
- • • -

.-2(rs reply, I am directed by Mr. (loschen to inform you
Mat those provisions in the Bill to which you refer are not
retrospective, and, therefore, the leases of which you write
will be exempted from the operations of the enactment ren-
dering void, in future, contracts on the part of landlords
to exempt themselves from the payment of local rata.

'
"1 have, &c., " W. 11. KENNEDY."
It seems, therefore, as it has been well stated by Mr.
Bidden In The Times of today, that the result of Mr.
Doschen's measure will only be a re arrangement of the basis
of rental. As a very small 'landowner,' whose interest In
real property lust enables me to scrape on with a narrow
professional income, I cannot see that the gift of a vote in
ratepayers' questions will be of the slightest use to me. If
an owner is within reach of local voting the chances are very
strong that he has already a vote as an occupier, and If hell
not, his vote will in most cases be a dead letter.-1 sm. Sir,
your obedient servant, A LIFE TENANT.
London, April 11.