120 



Parliamentary Publications. 



of the unions and parishes on the 2oth July, 1896. State- 

 ments were not received under the Act from the unions and 

 parishes under separate boards of guardians which contained 

 no agricultural land as defined by the Act, and the rateable 

 values of those unions and parishes have been taken from 

 returns which show their rateable values at the beginning 

 of the financial year 1896-97. 



It appears from the return that the total rateable value of 

 property liable to be rated to the poor rate in England and 

 Wales was as follows :— Agricultural land, as defined by 

 the Agricultural Rates Act, ;£24, 565,058 3s. lod.; buildings 

 and other hereditaments not being agricultural land, 

 ;^I40,847,208 7s. 6d.; total, ;f 165,412,266 lis. 4d. 



Light Railways, — Report of the Pi'oceedtngs of the Board of 

 Trade, under the Light Railways Act, 1896, dtcri^tg the 

 period ending ;^ist December, 1897, and of the Proceedings 

 of the Light Railway Comviissioners during the period 

 ending 22nd November, i^g-j. [ZT.C 55. Price 2^d.'] 



Immediately on the passing of the Light Railways 

 Act the Board of Trade issued a memorandum addressed to 

 the local authorities drawing attention to its provisions, and 

 in September, 1896, rules governing the procedure with 

 respect to applications to the Light Railway Commissioners 

 were made by the Board. The orders made by the Com- 

 missioners, and submitted to the Board of Trade for confirma- 

 tion, were nine in number, of which four had been confirmed 

 at the end of last year. 



The Commissioners state in their report that in December, 

 1896, 28 applications were made, representing an aggregate 

 mileage of about 308 miles, and orders were granted in 17 

 cases. In May, 1897, the number of applications for orders 

 was again 28, covering about 276 miles, and it was decided 

 to grant orders in 18 cases. The nature of the various 

 schemes submitted is given in a table, and the Com- 

 missioners add that there seems, so far, to be a preference for 

 the standard railway gauge, and that some of the leading rail- 



