Taxation on Land. 
27 
tax is really the only deduction made (with slight exceptions for 
public drainage works, losses by storms, &c.), from the rents of 
real property in order to arrive at their net value, as tithe is a 
separate and distinct property, and the owner of it bears the tax. 
In order, therefore, to appreciate the effect of these different 
rules of assessment, we must ascertain the difference between 
the gross income from landed property, which is practically 
what the owner pays the tax upon, and the net income he 
receives after he has paid all the expenses necessary to keep 
the property in a condition to maintain its rent. This difference, 
in the golden days of prosperity, was a considerable one, but it 
is far greater now, and varies of necessity very considerably. 
So far as my own somewhat extended experience guides me, 
I should say that this difference would average at least 25 per 
cent. It thus appears that incomes from landed and other real 
property are charged by rules which make the burden fall at 
least one-fourth heavier than it falls on trade, and other incomes, 
which are chargeable under different and more favourable rules ; 
and the difference is accentuated by the fact that incomes from 
land are seriously diminishing, while those from other sources 
are increasing. The value of lands assessed in the United 
Kingdom to the tax was, in 1879-80, 69,500,000k, .whereas in 
1891-92 the value had fallen to 57,500,000k But the profits of 
trade have advanced from 490,000,000k in 1876 to 587,000,000k 
in 1890-91, an increase of nearly 100,000,000k 
Conclusions and Suggestions. 
This brief outline of the manner in which land is affected by 
the present system of local and imperial taxation consists mainly 
of facts which are recorded in the statutes themselves, and which 
cannot be refuted. Unnecessary detail has been avoided, and 
it must, I think, be granted that a case has been presented 
which justifies the immediate attention of the agricultural com- 
munity. Some of the points involved appear at first sight to 
concern landlords only, but in reality the whole subject is 
important alike to owners, tenants, and labourers. I am ready 
to admit, to the fullest extent, that poor rate, although by law 
an occupier's tax, is in effect a charge upon ownership, because 
it is immaterial to a tenant, if he makes up his mind that a farm 
is worth 25s. an acre, whether he pays 22s. to his landlord and 
3s. for rates, or whether he pays 25s. to his landlord and lets 
him pay the rates. But the point I submit for consideration 
is this ; that every penny which is put upon land by way of 
taxation, is of the nature of a tax upon the raw material which 
