The House was engages from 3.30 on Tuesday after. noon
till 3.25 the next morning in the discussion of Clauses XXX. and XXX1.-of the -Finance Bill. Under the former it is proposed to set up a register of compensation value for all licensed premises with a view to taking the com- pensation value as the taxable value. The Solicitor-General moved an amendment granting the same right of appeal against the decision of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue in regard to the compensation value of premises as was given under the Act of 1904, but this was vigorously opposed by the Opposition as an illusory concession, Mr. Balfour pointing out that the Government amendment only provided for an appeal on the question of the capital sum. He accordingly moved that there should be an appeal against the amount of the annual compensation value determined by the regulations, but withdrew his amendment on receiving assurances of further concessions from Mr. Samuel and the Solicitor- General. After the Government amendment had been carried, Mr. Balfour denounced the Government's plan of valuation with great vigour as a flagrant instance of "tack- ing," while Mr. Asquith defended it as a magnanimous con- cession. The Closure having been moved and carried, Clause XXX. was then agreed to by 193 votes to 84- Clause XXXI., which provides for a reduction of the duty on hotels and restaurants when the receipts from intoxicants are less than one-third of the total receipts, was then discussed. Concessions were promised to relieve " seasonal" hotels and bona fuzerestaurants, but Mr. Asquith declined to yield to the demand that hotels should be treated on the same footing as clubs, contending that the case for extra taxation had been fully made out
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