Sir Massey Lopes on Tuesday raised a debate on the
incidence of local taxation, a subject rising every day into greater importance. He showed that landed property, which is only one-third of the =total property of the kingdom, bears a charge for poor-rates, highway rates, and improvement rates of 16,000,0001. a year, .which is annually increasing. He believed that local taxation was one cause of the disappearance of the yeomanry, and recom- mended that half the cost of police, lunatics, and the adminis- tration of justice should be paid by the Exchequer. The other .side of the question was well maintained by Mr. McLaren, who pointed out that when the Poor-Rates were imposed upon the land -the feudal obligations were taken off it ; that farmers paid a lighter income-tax than any other tradesmen ; and that the man who earned 1,000/. a year from land worth thirty-five years' purchase, .paid no more than the physician whose income is worth barely -two years'. Mr. Mill held a medium position, but strongly ,repeated the grand point that local taxation must be inquired into. It is beginning, in many places, to impede civilization.
Previous page
