THE LAND TAX INIQUITY.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR.”] SIR,—Your correspondent "A Legal Practitioner" refers to the valuers in your last issue as "men of ripe experience called in from outside." May I give my experience P A few weeks ago a young man, certainly not more than twenty-seven years of age, called here, and producing an official document demanded, with no little show of incivility, to be shown over the house. Being absent myself, he proceeded to ask my servant a number of questions, and was finally told that it would be better to make an appointment. He then made his way to the house of a neighbour who had recently purchased a small property for which the owner had asked 220,000, but which, on being valued by a well-known London valuer, came out at somewhat less. This lower figure the owner finally agreed to accept. Having, then, called upon my neighbour, the youth above referred to—for in truth he was nothing less — was admitted to the house and then taken round the grounds. He was a complete stranger to the district, whereas the London valuer had a house in the neighbourhood and knew the value of the land from long personal experience. However, that was apparently of no consequence. This Government valuer had no difficulty in assessing the value of my friend's property, and three weeks later official information arrived stating that the total value placed upon the same was 29,0001 As no one but the youth in question had been near the place this precious decision cannot be said to have emanated from one of "ripe experience," though certainly "called in from outside." But I wish that your valuable space permitted me to deal with many equally absurd conclusions that have come within my personal knowledge and that have also affected myself. I can only say that the whole procedure of the Government valuers is to many of us little less than a public scandal.—I am, Sir,
NEMO.
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