CLAUSE 1.—(Additional Land Tax Commissioners.) (Hansard, 7 July 1927)

§ Captain GARRO-JONES
This is a Land Tax Commissioners Bill, and it must be a matter of some importance. It is now seven minutes past One O'clock. I think a large number of Members have received letters from a certain body asking them to nominate certain men to be appointed Commissioners. Other Members, I believe, have not received those letters. The letters varied in form. Some said that it was the right of hon. Members of this House to nominate these Commissioners. Others said it was the right of the already existing Commissioners. Late as the hour is, I should like to have these matters cleared up. What is this Bill? Who has the right to nominate the Commissioners? Are women allowed to be nominated? I took the opportunity of nominating a very distinguished lady in my constituency. I have 1611 not yet learned whether that nomination has been accepted. If I am right in my supposition that this Bill has to do with the nomination of these Commissioners, then I hope that we shall receive from the Government some explanation of the Bill and on the points that I have raised.

Mr. NcNEILL
I should have been very glad to give the hon. and gallant Member an explanation of the Bill, but I gave a very full explanation on a former occasion, and I thought it would still be within the recollection of hon. Members. I explained at that time that hon. Members would receive requests—or might receive requests—from the Land Tax Commissioners in their own constituencies inviting them to make nominations for Land Tax Commissioners for their respective districts. It is not necessary that in every case an hon. Member should have received such a letter. My advice is that almost everywhere, in every constituency, hon. Members have been approached by local authorities with lists which it was open to them to receive as they were or to strike out some nominations, or add any other nominations they liked, and within a certain period deposit the lists in this House. The hon. Member for South Hackney (Captain Garro-Jones) has asked me whether women are eligible for these appointments. I have never heard that point raised before. I can only say that I conclude that, under the Sex Disqualification Removal Act, women would be eligible. That is only my own personal opinion, and I cannot give any definite ruling on the point. Of course, I need not remind hon. Members that we cannot take this Bill if there is any opposition at this time of night, but I had hoped that hon. Members would desire it to go through as it is entirely for their own convenience and the convenience of their constituents. The procedure is that as soon as it passes through Committee, and the persons have been nominated in the various districts, the names will appear in the "London Gazette," which is the equivalent to their being put in the Schedule of this Bill, and that record stands and is accepted under this legislation as the authoritative record of those who have been nominated.

§ Mr. CRAWFURD
As the right hon. Gentleman has raised the question of those letters, which were supposed to have been received by hon. Members for the purpose of nomination, I would like to ask one or two questions. From whom do the letters come? I take it that, if no letter is sent out, there is no need to nominate Commissioners, but what course of action is open to an hon. Member where no letter is received? I believe there has been some amount of irregularity, because several hon. Members have inquired why no letters have been sent.

§ Mr. McNEILL
I have not heard myself of any such cases, but, if the hon. Member has a case within his knowledge and communicates with me, I will see if there has been any irregularity.

§ Mr. PALIN
In such a case, would it be too late for the names to be included?

§ Mr. McNEILL
Yes, the notices were sent to hon. Members.

§ Mr. E. BROWN
Has the right hon. Gentleman any idea of the number of extra Commissioners required? The number seems to me to be fairly constant.

§ Mr. McNEILL
Dees the hon. Gentleman mean the number of nominations?

§ Mr. BROWN
The number of extra Commissioners.

§ Mr. McNEILL
Nobody can know, except at the Public Bill Office, until they have appeared in the "Gazette."

§ Mr. COMPTON
I happen to be one of 10 Members for a city and I received a notification from the Commissioners that a list had been sent on to another Member, but they failed to supply me with a list of names. In accordance with my right, I submitted a list of my own. Will that appear with the semiofficial list?

§ Mr. McNEILL
I do not like to be too positive, because it is a point I have not had an opportunity of considering, but my impression is that if the hon. Member has delivered his list to the Public Bill Office before the specified date his list will appear.

§ Mr. KIRKWOOD
I wish to raise the point of justices of the peace. This is another indication of the class struggle in Society. I am not opposing the Bill, but I would like to draw the attention of the Financial Secretary to the Treasury to the conditions that exist when Commissioners are being appointed for purposes of this description, because we find as Labour Members that when we nominate justices of the peace they are turned down.

§ The DEPUTY-CHAIRMAN
That matter has nothing to do with the Land Tax Commissioners.

§ Mr. McNEILL
Perhaps I can smooth matters. In the case of these Commissioners, there is no parallel with the appointment of justices of the peace. In the case of justices of the peace, the, hon. Member may possibly make a recommendation, and, as he says, that recommendation may be turned down. But in this case he himself has absolute power. He has only to nominate someone within the area of his constituency, and no one can turn the nomination down.

§ Captain GARRO-JONES
We ought not to let this Bill go through without a clear understanding that the right hon. Gentleman will investigate the irregularities. I want also to know how many vacancies there are on the Land Tax Commissioners. From a recent letter it appears that about 50 new members will be sufficient. If this post is worth having, if it is not a sinecure, it ought to be on some sort of regular basis. If the right hon. Gentleman can assure the Committee that he will go into these, irregularities, there is no need to oppose the Bill, but that assurance ought to be given.

§ Mr. McNEILL
The hon. Gentleman is expecting rather too much from me when he asks me, because that can only be rectified by Act of Parliament. There is no limit, as far as I recollect, to the number of possible Land Tax Commissioners. There is a body of Land Tax Commissioners in every district, but the area for which they are appointed does not coincide with any other modern area. They are obsolete territorial areas in many cases, and what happens is that as a rule a Bill like the present Bill is 1614 passed about the beginning of every Parliament, roughly every six or seven years. But a very large number of Land Tax Commissioners was affected in 1906, so many that there has been no replenishing of them since. Therefore, it is 21 years since one of these Bills was accepted by Parliament. That accounts for the fact that we in this House are not familiar with this legislation. In consequence of that lapse of time, there are many districts where there has been so much wastage that the existing Land Tax Commissioners have come to the conclusion that their number ought to be replenished. Not so in other cases. In certain areas the Land Tax Commissioners thought it was unnecessary to add to their number, and there was no obligation on them to do so. That is really, I think, an accurate description of the procedure.