§
I think the Committee will agree with me when I say that this must mainly go to the relief of agriculture. [Cheers.] I believe that even those who are, disappointed will agree with me that agriculture has a fair claim to this relief. I know that agriculture is not the only distressed interest in this country. [Opposition cheers. ] There may be manufactures and trades which are also suffering, but there is no interest of anything like the importance of agriculture which has suffered so much or so continuously or to which the general improvement of the condition of the country, to which I have already referred, has given so little relief. I hope that in this matter I may claim the support of the right hon. Gentleman opposite, for a year ago, in response to an application for relief of this kind, he stated in this House:—
If I had any money to give away the landed interest would be among the first persons who would deserve the consideration of the House.
[Cheers.] The method by which this relief should be given is, of course, a matter of difficulty, and requires serious consideration. It has been suggested to me that the best way to give relief to agriculture would be to put an end to the temporary duty of 6d. upon beer. ["Oh!" and laughter.] Well, Sir, that suggestion came from a brewer.[Loud laughter.] In my belief those who are connected with agriculture would prefer more direct relief. [Cheers.] Looking to what I
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have already stated to the Committee as to the present position of the brewing interest, upon which I could say, if necessary, a good deal more—["Hear, hear!"]—I think I may make this claim upon their unselfishness on behalf of their old allies, the agriculturists, that they will consent to the continuance of the temporary duty of 6d. Therefore I loot to give relief to agriculture in another way. First T turn to the Land Tax. Now, the Royal Commission on Agriculture, who did not agree upon everything —[laughter]—have unanimously reported that in their opinion relief should be given to agriculture in the matter of the Land Tax. I need not dwell upon the anomalies, I might almost say, the ridiculous inequality, of this tax. The Royal Commission have not recommended that it should be totally abolished, and why? Because of the obvious injustice that the abolition of the Land Tax would inflict upon a large number of persons who have redeemed it; and I should be disposed to add that there is also this difficulty—the Land Tax has, since 1798, when it was made perpetual, become, not an ordinary tax, but a rent-charge which has been duly allowed for to the purchaser whenever land subject to it has been bought and sold since that time. ["Hear, hear!"] The Royal Commission point out that whereas the quota of Land Tax for each parish is a fixed amount, the value of many parishes has so largely fallen on account of agricultural depression that the fixed quota has become a largely increasing burden, and they instance 11 or 12 parishes in Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincoln, and Wilts— counties which have suffered very heavily from the agricultural depression — in which the burden of the Land Tax, having regard to the assessable value of the land liable to it in a parish, is double or treble what it was 15 years ago. What the Royal Commission have proposed is that the maximum rate of the tax, which is now 4s. in the pound, shall be substantially reduced so as to give relief in those extreme cases. I propose, therefore, in accordance with their recommendation, to reduce the maximum rate of the tax from 4s. in the pound on the value of the land liable to it to 1s. in the pound on the assessment of those lands to Schedule A of the
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Income Tax. That, I believe, will be a sensible alleviation of the burden in the places where the Land Tax is most heavily felt. ["Hear, hear!"] Then the Royal Commission also recommend that better terms should be given for the redemption of the Land Tax. Mr. Pitt linked, so to speak, the redemption of the Land Tax with the price of Consols, in the belief that the value of land and the value of Consols would rise or fall together. He required that a certain sum in Consols, or cash to that amount, producing rather more than the annual amount of the Land Tax redeemed, should be paid to the State where the Land Tax was redeemed. In 1853 Mr. Gladstone reduced those terms by 17½ per cent. In Mr. Pitt's time, when the Funds stood at practically half what they are now, the redemption terms were comparatively very easy; but at the present price of Consols the only terms upon which the Land Tax can be redeemed under this system practically amount to 36 years' purchase or more. I propose to give a similar reduction to that, which Mr. Gladstone gave in 1853—namely, to reduce the number of years' purchase to 30 years, and to separate the matter altogether from any connection with the rise or fall in Consols. ["Hear, hear!"] There is also in this matter of the Land Tax a grievance which affects the taxpayers in town parishes, where the tax is very small in proportion to the value of the property subject to it. The payers of the Land Tax have also to pay for its assessment. I will give the Committee a few instances of the result. In Birmingham the total amount of the Land Tax is only £368 a year; but it has to be levied from 20,000 separate assessments, and those who pay it have also to pay in addition £165 a year, or pretty nearly half the amount of the tax, to the assessors for their work. In Salford the tax is £79 a year, raised from about 7,800 assessments, and £27 additional have to be paid to the assessors. In Oldham the quota is £23, paid by about 1,800 assessments, for which £16 extra have to be paid. I propose, in accordance with the request that has come, naturally enough, from several of these local authorities, that power should be given to raise the assessment in any year to an amount not
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exceeding one penny in the pound, so that in a few years, by a slight additional payment, the whole tax — including this absurd payment to the assessors—will be entirely got rid of. I estimate the cost of these amendments in the Land Tax at £100,000 a year.