HC Deb 09 May 1901 vol 93 c1165
MR. HARMSWORTH (Caithness)

I beg to ask the Lord Advocate, as representing the Secretary for Scotland, whether his attention has been called to the valuation of the Highland Railway undertaking, so far as within the county of Caithness, which has fallen from £7,730 in 1895–6 to £735 for the current year; whether he is aware that under the statutes the railway stations have a preferential claim on the valuation to the extent of five per cent. on their cost, the result, as regards the county of Caithness, being that the whole amount of the valuation for the current year falls to be applied to the stations (which even then will only give 4.7 per cent. on their cost), making the valuation of the thirty-eight miles of railway line within the county nil; and whether His Majesty's Government will reconsider the question of the deductions allowed to railway companies by the valuation statutes, so as to admit of a more equitable assessment as between railway stations and railway lines.

*MR. A. GRAHAM MURRAY

The answer to the first and second paragraphs of the hon. Member's question is in the affirmative. As I have already replied in this House, the whole subject of railway valuation in Scotland, including the points referred to by the hon. Member, is engaging the attention of the Royal Commission on Local Taxation.