§ MR. FIELDI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether the rule that is applied to the land in Ireland that the valuation should not be increased could be also applied to the county boroughs in respect to the new valuation, and whether, seeing that the gross valuation of Belfast city has been increased by 25 per cent., there is any reason, why such tenements should not be reduced by that amount, so that the Imperial taxation would not be increased.
MR. WYXDHAMSection 05 of the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, provides that land in county boroughs is to be valued in the same manner as houses. It cannot, therefore, be valued under the old Valuation Acts, which contained no provision for revising its value. There is no power under the Valuation Acts to reduce the valuation below the statutory basis.