82 GKEAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND - MISCEIvLAxNTEOUS 



The Commissioners of Inland Revenue are charged with the duty of 

 carrjring out the valuation throughout the entire kingdom. The Commis- 

 sioners are of course permanent civil servants of the Crown and are four 

 in number. They instituted a Valuation Office or Department of the In- 

 and Revenue composed of permanent civil servants and temporary officials. 



The Valuation Office consists of a Chief Valuer and Deputy Chief Valuer 

 for England and Wales, stationed at the head office in I,ondon, 13 Super- 

 intending Valuers stationed at various provincial centres throughout Eng- 

 land and Wales in charge of divisions of the country, 115 District Valuers 

 in charge of districts within such divisions, and the District Valuers are each 

 in immediate control of a staff of valuers, valuation assistants, draughtsmen, 

 and clerks. As regards Scotland, there is a Chief Valuer for Scotland stationed 

 at Edinburgh, with i Superintending Valuer, 10 District Valuers and their 

 staffs immediately under them. In Ireland the work of valuation is being 

 carried out on behalf of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue by the Com- 

 missioner of Valuation, the machinery of the Government Valuation De- 

 partment in Ireland having been pre\'iously in existence for other I/Ocal 

 and Imperial taxation purposes as described in Part 1 of this article. 



It will thus be seen that a chain of control by steps of decentralisa- 

 tion was the guiding principle in the formation of the Valuation Office. 



Those of the staff who are permanent civil servants are almost without 

 exception either Fellows (known also as Chartered Surveyors) or Profes- 

 sional Associates of the Surveyors' Institution. This Institution possesses 

 a Royal Charter to secure the advancement and facilitate the acquisition 

 of the knowledge of the profession of a Surveyor and to extend the useful- 

 ness of such profession for the pubhc advantage, and after thorough and 

 exhaustive examinations issues Diplomas to Fellows or Professional As- 

 sociates as a result of such examinations subject to enquiry into and con- 

 sideration of the practical experience and standing of the examinees. A 

 large proportion of the temporary valuers are also members of the Sur- 

 veyors' Institution. 



The Finance Act directed the Commissioners as soon as may be after the 

 passing of the Act (29th. April, 191 0) to cause a valuation to be made of 

 all land in the United Kingdom. " Land " includes all houses, buildings, 

 structures, timber, fixed machinery that would at common law pass on the 

 transfer on sale of a fee simple in the absence of any express stipulation, 

 and rights of sporting. In other words " land" is used in the comprehen- 

 sive sense of real property as opposed to personal or chattel property. 

 Each piece of land which is under separate occupation is to be separately 

 valued and the value is to be estimated as on the 30th. April, 1909. The 

 owner can however absolutely require any part of an occupation to be sep- 

 arately valued, and may desire the Commissioners to aggregate several 

 contiguous occupations in one separate valuation provided that the area 

 does not exceed 100 acres, whereupon if the Commissioners consider there 

 are special circumstances rendering it equitable so to aggregate, they are 

 to comply ; but the unit of valuation is generally the unit of occupation. 



