MARQUESS of TULLIBARDINEasked whether, previous to the Finance Act of 1909, owners of land in country districts in Scotland paid and still pay county rates, consisting of county general assessment, police, valuation, registration of votes, courthouses, lunacy (all consolidated in 1889), the interest and repayment 567W of debt incurred previous to 1890, one-half of the assessment for roads and bridges, and the assessment under Public Health Acts, and parish rates, consisting of one-half poor rate, including registration, burial, etc., school rate, special parish rate, not exceeding 6d. in the £, and the whole amount of ecclesiastical assessments for buildings and repairs of manses and churches; and whether these assessments, amounting in 1908 on an average to nearly one-seventh of the gross rental, were and are still borne wholly or in part by owners and occupiers of land only?
§ The LORD ADVOCATEThe Noble Lord's enumeration of the rates payable by owners and occupiers in Scotland is substantially correct. The facts are fully stated in the annual Local Taxation Returns. The rates are levied on all lands and heritages, as defined in the Valuation Acts.