TACKING AND THE BUDGET.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SpEcueroit."] Suz,—In the Lords' debate the Lord Chancellor is reported as follows :— "What is there in this Bill that in the least interferes with the doctrine laid down [i.e., in restraint of tacking] ? Is valuation foreign to and different from the subject-matter of the Bill? It is impossible to raise Land-taxes—you could not raise a shilling of them—except you have a valuation. It is the very basis and the • very root of the whole of the Land-taxes which are laid down in this Bill."
Nothing is easier to show than that each one of these propositions of Lord Loreburn's is untenable. Not only are the valuation proposals of the Government cumbrous and wasteful of public money, they are quite superfluous for the object for, which they are intended. The Government are to-day in possession of means which provide a valuation of all real property in the country, and, further, they have become consenting parties to a value which is already ascertained for each holding, whether large or small. By this I mean that at the last passing of each property, whether by death or by pur- chase, to a new owner there was an ascertained value placed upon it,_ and the Government, in the form . either of Succession or Stamp Duty, have. become parties to the :valuation, and have records which provide a means of vpluing all properties for. Increment-duty. - Mr. Simon in the Commons' debate on the Land-taxes made a
great point of the undue lowness of the valuations for Succession-duty in certain cases. Were these valuations made the State basis, there would be a corresponding gain for the purposes of increment taxation, an obviation of any necessity for Undeveloped Land Tax, an equality in the principle of treating all owners, and a saving of almost the whole of the proposed valuation expenses, as well as the heavy expense which will fall on individual owners. Without further trespass on your space, I think I may claim to have shown that Lord Loreburn in using the words above quoted was speaking without any justification, and only using them for want of a better argument to meet a charge which it was impossible to ignore.—I am, Sir, &c., L S. S.
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