Some sixty-five years ago the law courts declared that personal
property as well as land should be subject to rates, or rather, had always been subject to rates, and that the exemption gradually acquired by personal property was totally illegal. To meet the revolution in local taxation thus produced, Sir Robert Peel passed a short Act through Par- liament exempting personal property for one year from rates and fixing them temporarily solely on land, tithes, under- woods, 8:c. At the same time Sir Robert expressed his intention of putting the whole matter of rating on a proper basis. From that time onward this act of gross injustice to agriculture has been regularly re-enacted year by year. No doubt the problem of entirely remodelling local taxation is a very difficult one, but nevertheless it ought to be courageously faced. Till such remodelling has taken place Parliament has a clear duty. It ought, at any rate, to exempt agricultural land from rates just as, year by year, it exempts the raw material of all other industries. There is no physical diffi- culty about this, for already the central Government pays half the rates on agricultural land. It should pay the whole, pending an equitable revision of the entire system. If agricultural land were not subject to this special and heavy burden it would be far easier than it is now to encourage the growth of small-holders.
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