NEW VAI^UATION OF UNBUILT ON LAND 1 39 



(c) Comparison in the case of a certain number of farms of the net 

 revenue as resulting from the valuation scale and the net revenue as shown 

 in the contract of lease; 



(d) Communication of the results of the classification to the landowners. 



A proposal for the adoption of this method was embodied in a bill 

 and laid before Parliament by M. Ribot, Minister of Finance, on October 

 22nd., 1895, but it was not discussed and was again submitted in turn, but 

 with no better success, by M. Doumer in 1896 and M. Cochery in 1896 

 and 1897. 



And a bill on the same subject, proposed by M. Paul Constans in the 

 Chamber on ]March 12th., 1903, had no better success. 



Then M. Poincare, again Minister of Finance, made a new effort with 

 a view to the reform of the land tax, the principle of which he had himself 

 laid down in 1894. For this pturpose, he inserted an article in the Finance 

 Bill for 1907, laid before Parliament on June 24th., 1906, conceived as 

 follows : " The Department of Direct Taxation shall proceeed to a new 

 estimation of the 3deld from unbuilt on land in all the communes, beginning 

 with those in which the municipal councils make request for the carrying 

 out of the work. The new estimation shall be made and the conclusions 

 applied in each commune as the operations are completed, under the con- 

 ditions provided for in the laws and regulations relating to the cadastre... 



This article separated two operations that had been up to then considered 

 as necessarily connected, the equalisation of taxation in the case of the 

 total contributions of the commune and in that of individuals ; it thus per- 

 mitted of the immediate removal of inequalities in the taxes paid by differ- 

 ent taxpaj'ers in the same commune without it being necessary to wait for 

 a general equalisation or a transformation of the land tax. 



But it met with serious opposition from the Committee on the Estim- 

 ates and was not approved. 



M.Cailloux, jVl. Poincare's successor, returned to the subject in the bill 

 for the suppression of direct taxation and the introduction of a general 

 income tax and a supplementary tax on the total yield of the land, pro- 

 posed by him on February 7th., 1907. 



Without waiting for the vote on this bill, it was decided, in view of the 

 urgent need of the reform, to include the provisions relating to the new 

 valuation of unbuilt on land in a special bill, which was proposed on 

 November 21st., 1907 ; it came up for discussion in the Chamber on De- 

 cember 6th. and in the Senate on December 28th. 



After lively discussion, it was recognised that it would be dangerous 

 to hamper the Government by too many formalities and that it was wisest 

 to leave it to settle, as experience should dictate, the best methods to adopt, 

 for which it must give account to Parliament. 



Consequently, article 3 of the law of December 31st., 1907 was conceived 

 as follows: " The operations prescribed by article 4 of the law of July 21st., 

 1894 shall be immediately put in hand, the cost being paid out of the 

 3,000,000 frs. credit opened to the Department of Finance. They shall have 



