794 
The Assessment of Agricultural Land. 
increased burthen on other property. These figures, however, must be taken 
merely as illustrations and not as ascertained facts. It is probable that the 
average reductions of assessments of land would not be so great as one-half, 
though in individual cases it might be more. 
With regard to tithe I would only observe that I heard from all quarters 
that the Tithe Act of 1891, which proposed to give relief in cases where the 
tithe has almost swallowed up the whole value of the land, has proved to 
be a dead letter, and in no case has any relief been obtained. 
With respect to the land tax, which is exceptionally high iu Essex, I 
need not point out that a reduction of the assessment to the poor rate, on 
which the tax is computed, will cause relief to the individual payer. 
I am, yours very truly, 
(Signed) G. Shaw-Lefeyre. 
The Hon. E.G. Strutt, Whitelands, Witham. 
I do not think I can usefully add anything to Mr. Shaw- 
Lefevre’s letter, for it brings very clearly to view the injustice 
from which agricultural land suffers from the method of assess- 
ment usually adopted, and points out equally as clearly how that 
class of land would be relieved if the method of assessing the value on 
the actual or rack rent paid were adopted ; and how in such case houses, 
railways, tithes, and other ratable property would bear their pro- 
portionate share of the burden. He also points out a fact that is 
undoubtedly true, namely, that the low assessment, and the conse- 
quent smaller payment of rates, would be an inducement to many 
persons to take farms, even such farms as those in Essex of which he 
was writing, while the reverse acts as a deterrent. 
It may be said, however, that the injustice and unfairness to 
which I am endeavouring to draw attention is only found in Essex. 
But this is not the case ; it is more or less common throughout all 
England ; as witness the following letters which appeared in The 
Times on October 27, the first being from a well-known member of the 
Council of the Royal Agricultural Society, who has spent the greater 
part of a long life in studying the subject of local taxation and in 
improving the practical administration of poor relief in this 
country ; and the other from the Honorary Examiner in the subject 
of parochial assessment to the Surveyors’ Institution, a gentleman of 
very great experience in all matters relating to rating : — 
To the Editor of “ The Times. 1 ’ 
Sir, — The letter of the President of the Local Government Board to Mr. 
Edward Strutt in The Tones of to-day indicates the necessity of a reform in 
the law regulating the preparation of parochial valuation lists. I am well 
acquainted with some of the cases to which Mr. Shaw-Lefevre refers, having, 
as a governor of Guy’s Hospital, cause of complaint for the over-assessment 
of hospital farms in Essex, in the management of which I take a personal 
interest. Some of these assessments have been, at much cost, appealed 
against in Quarter Sessions without success, and as matters now stand there 
is absolutely no escape from a very iniquitous imposition. I am in the same 
dilemma myself in the Isle of Ely, where an assessment committee places an 
arbitrary value, 100 per cent, above its real letting value, on farm land in 
my own occupation. Of course by this overcharge other descriptions of 
hereditaments (such as houses, railways, canals, tithes) are relieved. 
