The discussion of the Rating Bill was resumed on Monday,
when Mr. Chaplin announced that he could not accept Mr. Channing's proposal to divide the rates between owner and occupier. In the course of the debate that followed this announcement, Mr. Balfour declared that, accustomed as he was to the Scotch system, "which worked admirably," he was not going to say a word against it. He thought it indeed the best system, but he was not going to risk the destruction of the present Bill by overloading it with a matter foreign to its main principle. In this decision the Government, we think, showed their wisdom, and ultimately Mr. Channing's motion was negatived by 110 votes (223 to 113). On Tuesday another important amendment, moved by Mr. Jeffreys, a Conservative squire, was rejected. It was to make the relief extend not only to land, but to "buildings used solely for agricultural purposes." We are glad on many grounds that the Government did not give way, but chiefly because in the future we shall see the naked land standing out taxed as no other property or stock-in-trade in the country is. This will help to bring about the general reform of local taxation which is so much needed, and which will either free the land or else include other sources of income.
