§ MR. BARNARD (Kidderminster)To ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will explain how the calculation which guided the grant in 1882 of £250,000 as compensation for disturnpiked and main roads was arrived at; will he state the assessable value of the land which the Agricultural Rate Grant, 1896, dealt with at the passing of the Act, and the average rates in the pound which the benefited land was paying in 1896; will he also state the assessable value of agricultural land which in the year 1907 received the benefit of the remission and the average rates which such land was paying; and will he state how much money the Exchequer contributed to local authorities under the Agricultural Rate Grant Act in the last financial year and how much the local authorities had to allow in the same period, and how much has been returned to the owner of the tithe rent-charges under the 1899 Act and from what source it was secured.
(Answered by Mr. John Burns.) My right hon. friend has asked me to reply to this Question. It would appear that the calculation which guided the grant made in 1882 in respect of disturnpiked and main roads was that of the amount required for distribution according to the Minute laid before Parliament in the Paper 365 of 1882, a copy of which I will send to my hon. friend. The amount seems to have been based on the actual cost of the maintenance of the roads in the latest year for which there were available Returns, but was to some extent conjectural. The rateable value of agricultural land in England and Wales, as defined in the Agricultural Rates Act, 1896, was, at the date of the passing of the Act, £24,565,058, and at the commencement of the year 1906–7, £23,701,843 (page 2 of Paper 368 of Session 1897, and page 19 of Paper 321 of Session 1907). The average rates in the pound of the public rates payable in 397 the years 1895–6 and 1906–7 in respect of agricultural land have not been separately ascertained. The total amount paid to local authorities during the year 1906–7 out of the annual grant under the Agricultural Rates Act, 1896, was £1,326,484. (page 181 of Paper Cd. 3665 of Session 1907). The spending authorities under the Act, when issuing precepts for contributions out of rates and when making rates, had to allow for the sum set out in the preceding paragraph. The sum appropriated during the year 1906–7 for the purposes of the Tithe Rent-Charge (Rates) Act, 1899, was £136,827 (page 19 of last-mentioned Paper). This sum was appropriated by the Commissioners of Inland Revenue out of the sums payable by them to the local taxation account. (Section 1 of Act of 1899).