38 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



date of death and the sale. That is to say, the duty must be 

 paid by the seller out of the proceeds of the sale, as this burden 

 cannot be transmitted with the woods to the purchaser. When 

 this proviso was framed, the " principal value " of the woods 

 meant the amount of the valuation of the woods as aggregated 

 with the other estate, but as the value of the woods is not now 

 aggregated with the other estate, a valuation would not now in 

 ordinary course be required. If a valuation of the woods is not 

 made as at the date of death, there may be difficulty in ascertain- 

 ing the "principal value" of the woods on which duty would be 

 at once payable in the event of this proviso coming into opera- 

 tion by reason of a sale taking place after an interval of years. 



The principal changes eifected by the new clause are : — 



{First) That the value of the "timber, trees, wood or under- 

 wood " is not now to be taken into account in estimating the 

 principal value of the deceased's estate or the rate of estate duty. 



No valuation of these for the purposes mentioned is now 

 necessary. In valuing estates on which timber, trees, wood 

 and underwood are growing, each valuator may have his own 

 method of procedure in giving effect to this concession, but a 

 simple plan would be to take as a basis of valuation the 

 rental of the estate as it appears in the Valuation Roll, always 

 keeping in view Sec. 60 of the Finance (1909-10) Act, 1910, 

 quoted in the note before referred to. This rental may include 

 such entries as " plantations " or " woods," but these entries are 

 misleading and really mean land occupied by plantations or 

 woods. The annual value of the growing trees is not entered 

 in the Valuation Roll any more than the value of other growing 

 crops is. The woodlands are valued at the rent at which they 

 might in their natural state reasonably be expected to let from 

 year to year as pasture or grazing land, and the trees are 

 therefore not taken into account. By adopting the rental in 

 the Valuation Roll as a basis, the question of the value of the 

 trees will not require to be dealt with. 



{Second) That the rate of estate duty payable on the woods 

 is now determined by the amount of the other estate without the 

 addition of the woods. Formerly the duty was determined by 

 the total of the other estate with the addition of the woods. 



{Third) That "underwood," which is held by the Inland 

 Revenue Authorities to mean " coppice and other quick-growing 

 wood which is cut at frequent intervals, the root or stool 



