In the House of Commons on Friday week Dr. Macnamara
moved the second reading of the Land Values Assessment and Rating Bill, which empowers local authorities to levy a rate of not more than a penny in the pound in any financial year on land in the urban districts of London. Existing contracts were to be left untouched, and for the moment the new rate would be paid by the occupying tenants. Dr. Mac- namara based his case on the broad fact that whereas there had been an increase in Imperial taxation of 72 per cent. between 1868-1900, the increase in local rates in England and Wales during the same period had been 150 and in London 200 per cent. From this he argued that in great towns there was a direct relationship between rate expenditure and land values. "The landowner was the residuary legatee of the great bulk of rate expenditure." After giving specific instances of "unearned increment," Dr. Macnamara en- larged on the moderation of the Bill, which was based on the Minority Report of the Royal Commission on Local Taxation and supported by the great majority of
municipalities, appealed to Continental and Colonial ex- amples, and concluded by invoking the authority of an early speech of Mr. Chamberlain.
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