

RATING OF MACHINERY 111 



on real property could not rightly be undertaken without 

 some change in the incidence of the Income Tax. 



1892. 



The dissolution, which took place on 28th June, prevented 

 much business of any sort being accomplished, and the most 

 interesting event in this short session was in connection with 

 the Rating of Machinery Bill. The promoters of that measure 

 had been ver\ T active in the two previous sessions, and the 

 Committee, working in conjunction with local Chambers of 

 Agriculture, had been equally active in opposing it by means 

 of petitions, whips to Members of Parliament, and other 

 methods. On 5th April of this year a deputation waited 

 upon the President of the Local Government Board (Mr. 

 Ritchie) to lay their views on the Bill before the Government. 

 The deputation was introduced by Sir Edward Grey (Chair- 

 man of the Central Chamber for that year) and it was attended 

 by representatives of the United Property Owners' Asso- 

 ciation, the National Amalgamated Sailors' and Firemen's 

 Union, and the Birmingham and District Joint Committee 

 of Rating Authorities. The Bill obtained a second reading, 

 but made no further progress. 



The great National Agricultural Conference, convened by 

 the Central Chamber, took place in London this year, and 

 as it was probably the largest and most representative agri- 

 cultural gathering ever held in this country, its opinion upon 

 this subject is worth recording. The following resolution, 

 moved by Sir Richard Paget, and seconded by Mr. John 

 Tread well, was carried unanimously : 



" That, in the opinion of this Conference, the charges now 

 imposed upon agricultural land by Imperial and local taxation 

 are unfair and excessive as compared with those falling upon 

 personalty and other classes of property, that such charges 

 are injurious to all concerned in the cultivation of the soil, fall 

 with especial severity on the class of yeoman farmers, and by 

 tending to increase the cost of production, and to overtax a 

 struggling industry, are opposed to the interests of the community 

 at large." 



