§ MR. ACLANDsaid, he would beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether the Government will take into consideration the Resolution of the Select Committee on Local Taxation, that "it is expedient to make owners as well as occupiers directly liable for a certain proportion of the rates," with a view to provide that in parishes in which School Boards shall be established the charge for building and maintaining Schools beyond the Moneys provided out of Imperial Funds by Parliament may not fall exclusively on resident occupiers not being owners?
§ SIR MASSEY LOPESsaid, he wished, before the Question was answered, to point out to the right hon. Gentleman at the head of the Government that the final paragraph of the Resolution of the Committee stated that the inquiry on which they had been engaged formed only one branch of the general question, and that other considerations besides those submitted to them ought to be taken into account in any general measure on the subject. Under those circumstances he would beg to ask, if it would not be premature to express any opinion on the question before the labours of the Committee had been somewhat more advanced?
MR. GLADSTONEsaid, in reply, that the Government would, of course, take into consideration the Resolutions of the Select Committee; but it was obviously impossible to state whether the order of succession would apply first to an education rate, or to any change which might be made in the law of rating. The Select Committee, as they themselves stated, had only considered one important branch of the question of local taxation, and the Government hitherto had not enjoyed a sufficient opportunity of considering these Resolutions and the evidence upon which they were based, to give any definite pledge as to the order of their own proceeding.