§ MR. R. McKENNA (Monmouth, N.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether chairmen of District Councils, who become ex-officio magistrates, are, during their time of office, ex-officio Land Tax Commissioners of the districts in which they reside, or whether they must be nominated by the county Members in the same way as the other Commissioners who are not magistrates?
§ * MR. HANBURYI am advised that, as a general rule, a chairman of a District Council who becomes ex-officio a magistrate under Section 22 of the Local Government Act of 1894, is, if he possesses the necessary qualification under Section 3 of the Act 38, Geo. III., cap. 48, competent to act as Commissioner of Land Tax for the county at large in which the district is situated. Where, however, the District Council is the council of a county borough, the point is not free from doubt. The question then is whether "county" in the Land Tax Act, 7 & 8 Geo. IV., cap.75, can be taken to include a county borough under the Local Government Act 1894. A county borough may not be a Land Tax area at all, and in that case it is not at all clear that an ex-officio Justice of the Peace under the Local Government Act 1894, is competent to act as a Land Tax Commissioner under the Act of 7 & 8 Geo. IV.