The Telegram. — 1894-07-31 (Weymouth, Dorset, England)

FARM CIS AND INCOMIITAX.—" K.C.T.," writing in Farm and Ilona on " The Law of Income Tax, says : It has been the invariable practice (since the passing of the earlier Income-Tax Acts) to consider that the vrofits arising from the occupation of lands were in England equal to one-half of the annual value thereof, while in Scotland and Ireland the profits were equal to only one third of the annual value. English , fanners have long contende,l that this assumption was purely arbitrary and have of late demanded that the practice should be altered and assinitlated throughout the kingdom. The Government have given way upon the point, and it has been settled that Income-Tax under Schedule B shall in 1891 be threepence ili the pound instead of fourpence, as it would otherwise have been. For the mode in which the assumption was carried out was to charge the occupier of the land with half the rate of the duty under Schedule A, but to assess that half-rate upon the full annual value. Practically the result was the same as tithe full rate of duty were charged upon half the annual value. This assumption is now apparently dropped, and some measure of relief is given to the tax-paying fanner. There is also a change in the method of ascertaining the annual value for the purposes of landlord's property tax (Schedule A), and certain most important deductions will now be allowed. Then, too, the limits within which total exemption from the tax, or an abatement of the tax, might be claimed, have been extended, while there are other changes of a most important character.  A great part of Birmingham, Alabama, has been destroyed by fire. A north-hound passenger train from Dallas, Texas, was wrecked at Queen's City oa Tuesday night, and eight persons were killed. A CLERGYMAN CHARGED wrra Rogeger.—At the Marylebone (London) Police-court on Tuesday, the Rev. Ernest Fitzroy, aged 60, • clerk in holy orders, was charged with having stolen a black bag containing wearing appatel valued at £2, the property of the Rev. Jainew Newton Ideale, of Harbledown Rectory, Canter. • bury. The evidence was to the effect that the prisoner entered the grand hall of Ruston Station ' about half past six o'clock on Monday evening. After walkilig about for siinie tune lie entered the waiting-room in which the prosecutor had placed lii s laggage. During the absence of the prosecutor the prisoner took up one of the bags and was leaving when he was stopped by a constable.—For the defence, counsel submitted that the prisoner was not in his right ;Mud, and suggested that misfortune had so preyed upon him that he did nut know what he was doing. The magistrate, he said, would infer what WWI the cause of it all ; unfortunately the 'slightest recourse to liquor over. I came the prisoner.—Mr. Cooke, the magistrate, remanded the prisoner for a week, and requested the prison doctor to report as to his condition. Tite SOUTHEND Mualiam—At Southend, on Monday, Janice Conhain Read, aged 39, cashier, until lately employed at the Royal Albert Docks, London, was charged on remand with the wilful murder of Florence Dennis, aged 33 years, late of Shakespeare Road, Herne Hill, whose body was found in a trook at Prittlewell, near Southend, on June 24th last. Intsmse interest was again nianifested in the proceedings, Mr. Lamb, Treasury solicitor, opened the case with a lengthy speech, in which he detailed the prisoner's past career and the events leading up to his arrest. The evidence, he said, would show that the accused was in the neighbourhood of Prittlewell about the time the alleged murder was committed, and that he had previously pos. SOI32AA a revolver.—lnspector Baker stated MIMI he found at Mitchum £35 and some silver, a docunieus purporting to be a mrtiSeate of mantags between the accused and Itliss Kempton, and other documents. On the Monday after the tragedy Read disappeared from his employment, wtere £l5B had, it was discovered, been aSolmt, Dr. Waters gave evidence as to the canoe of Dennis's death, She was advanced eight months iti pregnancy.—Robert I)owtliwaite ideutifiid Read , as the man he saw with the deceased on the day ei the murder going towards the field where the girl's Ibody was found. The cam was adjottatad mi a. week