§ MR. WODEHOUSEbegged to ask the right hon. Baronet the Chancellor of the Exchequer: "Whether it is the intention of Her Majesty's Government to introduce any measure for the purpose of remedying the present inequality of the land tax, as adverted to in the report of the Select Committee of the House of Lords (Session 1846), on the burdens affecting real property, referring to the evidence given upon this subject by Mr. Wood, the Chairman of the Board of Excise, and also by Mr. Coode, the assistant secretary to the Poor Law Board, and ending by declaring 'that it appears that the quotas in the agricultural districts are higher, in proportion to the value of property, than they are in the mining and manufacturing districts of the country;' and whether Her Majesty's Government intends to adopt the suggestion contained in the report above mentioned, in which the Committee say that, 'considering the changes occasioned by the creation of real property, as well as those taking place in the relative value of the different descriptions of real property, it is scarcely necessary for them to point out the advantage as well as justice of periodical and uniform valuation.'"
§ The CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERsaid, it was not the intention of the Government to introduce any measure for equalising the land tax. At the time the land tax was imposed, it was a commutation for military service due from the owners of land alone. It was commuted to a fixed sum, with the power of redemption, and it would be impossible, with any 1031 degree of justice, now to attempt to equalise the tax. With regard to the hon. Gentleman's second question, he (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) perfectly agreed that it would be desirable that there should be periodical revaluations in counties, to secure a more fair and just apportionment of the burden. But this was one of those cases in which he entirely objected to the Government being called upon to interfere; and it was in the power of any county to adopt the remedy for itself. In the county where he resided—the West Riding of Yorkshire—the property had been twice revalued within the last fourteen years; and he would suggest to the hon. Gentleman that he should go down to his own county (Norfolk), at the next quarter-sessions, and endeavour to prevail upon his brother magistrates to follow the example of the West Riding of Yorkshire in this matter.
§ MR. WODEHOUSEbegged to give notice that he would bring this subject before the attention of the House on an early day after Easter.