14 AUGUST 1909, Page 3

Mr. Asquith in his reply justified the special treatment of

a special class of owners on the ground that they had hitherto enjoyed exceptional advantages. The difficulties of valuation were largely figments of Parliamentary imagination, and he stated that it had been decided to transfer the burden of the cost from the owners to the State. The tax must not be considered by itself, but as part of a composite fiscal system, all the Land. taxeshanging together ; and he demurred entirely to the view that they were to judge the fiscal propriety of a tax by its yield of the first year or two after its imposition.