BEST METHODS OF TAXATION. 529 



the Rhine, as well as those in France, themselves admitted that any 

 computation of net income was uncertain; that the coincidence of 

 the figures obtained by the cadastral computation with the actual 

 net income could never be assured; that the figures afforded by the 

 cadastre were rather of the nature of a proportion, while uniformity 

 of assessment was to be attained rather by observation of the busi- 

 ness transacted than by depending on the figures obtained by com- 

 putation." * This effort to discover and record the net income from 

 land was a failure. 



So thorough an experiment, carried through so long a time, and 

 presenting an example to be avoided, was in fact imitated by Prus- 

 sia under a law of 1865. In each division (Kreis) was appointed a 

 commissioner, who was chairman of a committee, the size of which 

 ranged from four to ten members, according to the size of the divi- 

 sion. One half of this committee was appointed by the represent- 

 atives of the division and one half by the central Government. A 

 number of divisions formed a department, with its commissioner 

 and committee of similar composition as in the division, and above 

 all was a central committee, presided over by the Minister of Fi- 

 nance. The valuation was accomplished in less than four years. 

 The method was applied only to land employed in agriculture or 

 forests; a separate law provided for the taxation of buildings and 

 gardens. In the end the results were no better than those obtained 

 in France. In either case a plan too refined to work to advantage 

 had been employed, and, apart from its simplest function, that of 

 making a general survey of the land and the uses to which it was 

 applied, it could not advance the theory of a proper land tax. No 

 modification could make it a better instrument of taxation. The 

 gross income from land as a taxing basis would involve heavy in- 

 justice, and further supervision by government officers could not do 

 away with the mechanical difficulties of securing uniformity. The 

 English plan of making rental value the foundation is more easily 

 applied and gives better results. 



If land be difficult of assessment, personal property offers a very 

 much more difficult problem. On this particular question this coun- 

 try has much to learn from the experience of other governments. 

 In Great Britain a Royal Commission has been making a study of 

 local taxation, and, in a preliminary report, concludes that an altera- 

 tion in the law for the purpose of obtaining a uniform basis of valu- 

 ation in England and "Wales is a necessary preliminary to any revi- 

 sion of the existing system of local taxation. It has been already 

 stated that the poor rate constituted the basis of valuation of prop- 

 erty for local rates. In its development the system has become 



* -Colin, Science of Finance, p. 477. 

 VOL. LV. 38 



