§ MR. BENN (Devonport)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether he is yet in a position to name a day for the introduction of the Valuation Bill; whether, having regard to the number, difficulty, and importance of the appeals now made in rating cases, he will be prepared in the Bill to substitute an expert tribunal for quarter sessions as the authority for determining all such appeals; and whether, seeing that in London pressure occurs in the year of quinquennial re valuation, he will consider the desirability of inserting in the Government's Valuation Bill some provision for spreading the work of revaluation over the whole quinquennium instead of concentrating it in one year.
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe Answer to the first part of the Question is in the negative. I could not give any promise to comply with the proposal in the second part of it. I will give consideration to the suggestion in the last part of the Question, but the matter is not free from difficulty.