76 LOCAL TAXATION 



over as an equivalent the Inhabited House Duty, to be collected 

 and applied by local authorities. 



This brings us to 1868, when Sir Massey Lopes moved a 

 resolution in the House of Commons, on behalf of the Central 

 Chamber, and thus inaugurated the Parliamentary inter- 

 vention of that body. 



In the early period of the struggles which took place between 

 the spokesmen for the Chambers and successive Governments, 

 many of those who opposed any subvention being made from 

 the Treasury argued that the rates should be levied on the 

 owner instead of on the occupiers, or that at least each should 

 pay half. This was the line taken by Sir Thomas Acland 

 (Liberal member for North Devon) on 16th April, 1872. But 

 Sir Thomas Acland is not the only prominent Member of 

 Parliament who has shown a woful or wilful ignorance of the 

 incidence, or even of the theory of Local Taxation. During 

 a debate some time in the 'nineties Mr. Labouchere said that 

 if landowners were sincere in their desire to reduce the rates 

 which their tenants had to pay they had only to reduce rents, 

 and rates would go down automatically. He conveniently 

 ignored the patent fact that where a certain amount has to 

 be raised, the rate in the pound must go up according as the 

 rentable value of any given area goes down. Again, at a 

 more recent date, Mr. Lloyd George, M.P., is reported as 

 saying that it really did not matter whether rates or taxes 

 bore these burdens, as they both came out of the same 

 pocket. 



A student of political economy might perhaps express 

 surprise that farmers (or occupiers) should have taken so 

 keen an interest in this subject, since the burden of local rates 

 is declared to be, in fact, a burden on the owner. But farmers 

 are not political economists, and few of them delve very 

 deeply into questions of this sort. What they do know is 

 that the Act of 1836 placed the burden on the occupier, and 

 that though the landowner ultimately pays it, in the form of 

 reduced rents, yet the tenant actually has to hand it to the 

 rate collector ; and they also know that smy rise in rates 

 must be borne by the occupier until there is a change of 



