905.] Rating Sporting and Fishing Rights. 



285 



The Local Government Board have furnished the Board of 

 Agriculture with the following summary of the law relating to 

 the rating of sporting and fishing rights : — 



Rating- Sporting- Under the old statute ( 43 Elizabeth, c. 2) 



retained the right of sporting or let it to another person, the 

 value of the right formed an element in estimating the value of 

 the land to the occupier (Reg. v. Battle, L.R. 2, Q.B. 8). 



Where the right is not severed from the occupation of the 

 land (i.e., where the owner retains both the land and the right, 

 or lets them both to one tenant) the value of the sporting rights 

 are still included in the valuation of the land ; but in any other 

 case, the right must be dealt with in the manner directed by 

 Section 6 of the Rating Act, 1874. 



Sub-section (1) of that section provides that where any right 

 of sporting is severed from the occupation of the land, and is 

 not let, and the owner of such right receives rent for the land, 

 the right shall not be separately valued or rated, but the gross and 

 rateable value of the land shall be estimated as if the right were 

 not severed. It would seem, however, that the prohibition in 

 the sub-section of a separate valuation or rating of the right of 

 sporting is modified by Section 5 (a) of the Agricultural Rates 

 Act, 1896, which requires that in every valuation list the value 

 of agricultural land shall be stated separately from that of any 

 building or other hereditament. Where, therefore, the rateable 

 value of any agricultural land is, under the Rating Act, 1874, 

 increased by reason of its being estimated as if the rights of 

 sporting were not severed, the amount of such increase should, 

 for the purpose of the valuation list, now be included in the rate- 

 able value of buildings and other hereditaments not being 

 agricultural land. 



The rate payable in respect of any sporting right so entered 

 in the valuation list may be deducted by the occupier of the land 

 from his rent under Section 6 (1) of the Act of 1874, unless he 

 has specifically contracted to pay such rate in the event of an 



and Fishing- 

 Rig-hts. # 



the sporting right was in no case separately 

 rated, although, where the occupier of land 



* This summary, together with a resume of the Memorandum on the Rating of 

 Woodlands, which appeared in this Journal in June last, will be included in Leaflet 

 No. 8 (Assessments to Local Rates), which will shortly be revised. 



