June 1895.] 



PARLIAMENTARY PUBLICATIONS. 



91 



Lists of the applications made to the Court, and of the 



cases heard, and of the working agreements submitted to the 



Commissioners for approval, are given in an Appendix to the 

 Report. 



Report on Local Taxation in Scotland. [C. — 7575.] 

 Price Is. 9cl. 



This publication, by John Skelton, Esq., C.B., LL.D., formerly 

 Chairman of the Board of Supervision, and now Vice-President 

 of the Local Government Board (Scotland), is a report on local 

 taxation in Scotland, with especial reference to the proportion 

 of local burdens borne by urban and rural ratepayers, and by 

 different classes of real property. 



In an introduction to the report. Dr. Skelton states that in 

 his inquiry into the progressive increase of local taxation in 

 Scotland, he has followed as far as possible the main lines of 

 inquiry, historical and geographical, on which the interesting 

 and instructive reports by Mr. Goschen and Mr. Fowler as lo 

 the increase and incidence of local taxation in England 

 proceeded. 



Dr. Skelton's inquiry is, however, limited to a comparatively 

 recent period, because reliable statistics are not available for 

 Scotland for the earlier years of the century. The year 1848, 

 when the Poor Law Act may be said to have come fully into 

 operation, is taken as a convenient starting point, and a com- 

 parison is made of the amount of local taxation levied in 1848, 

 with the amounts levied in three representative later years — 

 1867, 1881, and 1893. 



The report is divided into various sections showing the 

 present position of local taxation in Scotland, with a retrospec- 

 tive survey of the various amounts, and rate per £, of local 

 rates levied at various periods. 



The amount of indirect taxation for local purposes during the 

 san^e period is given, as well as the increase in the local 

 expenditure and in the local debt. 



The growth of taxation is traced as regards poor rates, 

 education rates, church and burial ground rates, road rates, 

 police or constabulary rates, and sanitary rates. 



In the section l elating to the increase of valuation of real 

 property it is shown that the growth in the valuation of Scot- 

 land during the present century has been very great. The real 

 rental at different dates is given as follows : in 1815, 6,652,000?. ; 

 in 1841, 9,300,000^. ; in 1848, 10,236,000^. ; in 1856, 11,745,000Z. ; 

 in 1867, 16,260,000^. ; in 1874, 1 8,921,000^ ; in 1881, 22,276,000?. ; 

 in 1892, 23,980,000?. ; and 24,180,000?. in 1893. 

 ;o Assuming that the old valued rent was a fair value at the 

 time, ; and that the then value of the £ Scots was Is. Sd. 

 sterling, the report states that the value of real property has in 



