Practical rules observed in ascertaining the gross estimated rental.—Of land.—The arable, meadow, and pasture land in a parish is generally valued separately from any adjoining buildings. Where land is subject to tithes the apportioned som must be deducted from the amount fixed as the reasonable rent to ascertain the gross estimated rental. Thus, if a close of land might reasonably be expected to let for £15 a year, and it is subject to tithe rent charge amounting to £3 a year, the gross estimated rental will be £12 only, as the £3 a year will be included in the total amount of tithe assessed on the tithe owner. No land is considered as arable land unless it is actually under cultivation by the plough, and no commons or warrens are considered as meadow or pasture land. All garden, yard, or other land (not being arable, meadow, or pasture, as above defined) should be assessed according to its value in the locality in which the land is situate. And where land is used in conjunction with buildings, the overseer should add what he estimates to be the gross annual value of the land, or " surface rent " as it may be called, to the annual value of the buildings, to arrive at the gross estimated rental of the whole. Of dwelling-houses and their appurtenances.—Every dwelling-house with its outbuildings, yards, gardens, and other appurtenances should be separately valued, and form a separate item in the valuation list. Of other buildings.—Every building of whatever description, not being a church, chapel, or other building exclusively appropriated to, and duly certified as, a place of public religious worship, must be brought into assessment. If any schoolroom or other place, although attached to a building certified as a place of public religious worship, be used for lectures, classes, or any purpose other than as a Sunday school or for religious worship, such schoolroom or other place must be assessed in the valuation list. The gross estimated rental of public elementary schools may be calculated according to the number of school places such schools are built to accom modate. This assessment will include the playgrounds, but not masters' houses or gardens. In the case of warehouses and other buildings which are not subject to any unusual wear and tear, if resort has to be made to the structural value an assessment at from 31 to 5 per cent. upon such value, in addition to the estimated surface rent of the land occupied with them, would be fair and reasonable. With regard to windmills, foundries, workshops, and other buildings containing machinery, all such machinery as is essentially necessary to the business carried on and is permanently fixed to the freehold should be assessed. The assessment could fairly be from G to 7 per cent. on the structural value of the buildings and machinery, if the landlord insures and keeps in repair, in addi tion to the estimated surface rent. Of tithe commutation rentcharge.—The occu pier of land which is subject to tithes practically pays rent in two portions and to two persons, the one being the owner of the land, and the other the owner of the tithe, but the occupier is rateable only in respect of the rent he pays the landlord, the tithe owner being rateable in respect of the tithe. The gross tithe rentcharge payable to the tithe owner, according to the average of the preceding year, should be taken as the gross estimated rental of such tithe. Of railmays.—The public railways in a parish are assessed upon the principles laid down by the Railway Commissioners. Following the general principle that the rateable value of hereditaments is derived f om the rent which a tenant would pay upon a yearly tenancy, the portion of railway falling to be rated in each parish is fixed upon the basis of a rent which a hypothetical tenant might be expected to pay for that portion of railway. Admittedly such a tenancy is practically impossible. There is no element of competition which would enable a judg ment to be formed as to a fair rental value, as in the case of a farm, house, or shop, and the only guide for the assessment is the traffic carried and the p.ofit earned. From this it has arisen that in railway, gas, and water assessments alone the profit earned is taken as the basis of calculation, and the whole profit beyond the dry interest on an assumed tenant's capital and an allowance for tenant's profits is attributable to a hypothetical rent and therefore to rateable value. The effect of this system of ca.lculating a rent backwards from profits is alleged to raise the railway assessment far above that of any other kind of property assessed upon the ordinary basis of rental value. All additional or branch lines not already assessed are included in the new list, and if a station has been enlarged, or new buildings or sidings added, a reassessment of the property is made. Where a private railway exists, and the owner charges a way-leave rent for the passage of minerals over it, the moneys received are, in effect, a rent for the use of the line, and the owner must be assessed accordingly. But the person paying such way leave will be entitled to a corresponding deduction from his own assessment, provided the assessment is based upon an assumed royalty. Where the owner uses the railway for the haulage of his own minerals from another parish, he must be assessed also in respect of what he would receive for such haulage had such minerals belonged to another owner. Of gas and watermorks.—The calculations upon which the assessment of such properties as these are usually based are extremely intricate, but a, sufficiently correct valuation may generally be made by adding to the estimated surface rent not less than 6 per cent. upon the structural value of the buildings, retorts, and machinery. The mains and services are rateable in the several parishes in which they lie. In assessing them, the capital expended in laying the mains should be estimated, and the gross estimated rental calculated at from 5 to 6 per cent. upon the outlay. Of quarries, and gravel, challc, and clay pits.—Such property is usually let at a surface rent per acre, and a rent of so much per ton or per yard (generally called a royalty) on the output. As to clay pits, where the clay is used for making bricks or tiles, the royalty is usually fixed at so much per 1000 bricks-1000 bricks being equivalent to 3i cubic yards of clay. The royalty may in all cases be calculated on the output of the previous year. Buildings and machinery used only for getting the minerals are not assessed. Land let with a quarry or pit, but used for any purpose other than the getting of the minerals, is separately assessed, according to the use to which it is put. Of briclffields.—In addition to the assessment on the clay pits, a brickyard, with its buildings and fixed plant, may be conveniently assessed upon the basis of the number of boles in the kilns, and the extent of fixed shedding available. Of markets andfairs, fsheries, tolls, and ferries.—These
and other concerns of a like nature in the parish are included in the list. They are all assessable, whether in the hands of the owner or let to a tenant, upon the general principles above indicated. Of telephone and telegraph posts and mires.— The Government telegraph posts and wires are only assessed at the sums at which they are assessed in the valuation lists in force, these sums having been agreed to by the Treasury. All other telegraph and telephone posts and wires are liable to be rated, and should be included in the valuation list. Of advertising stations.— All advertising stations and hoardings are rateable, and should be assessed at the sum at which they may reasonably be expected to let. Land used temporarily or permanently for the exhibition of advertisements, or for the erection of any structure used for the exhibition of advertisements, is rateable according to the value of such use.
As to the deductions. to be made from the gross estimated rental to determine the rateable value.—All rates and assessments charged upon and paid by the landlord arc proper deductions. The principal deduction in most cases, and generally the only deduction, is for repairs insurance, and renewals ; these are made in accordance with some such scale as the following :— On Land . . 2s. in the £ .
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. • • On Houses . . 3s. 1.1 .
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On Mills, Foundries, Gasworks, and other Properties, in which there is much wear and tear, or in which the machinery is assessed . . 4s. to 5s, „ . .
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On Railway- Stations, Buildings, and Sidings . . 4s. 0., On Blast and Smelting Furnaces, and Kilns of every description . . Gs. 8d. . .
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On other buildings . • 3s. 7) .
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On Gas and Water Mains, and Services . . 3s. Y., .
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On Royalties • . . ls. )2 On Sporting Rights . . I s. .,, . .
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On Rateable Hereditarnents not included under any according to of the foregoing heads . stances.
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For the purpose of calculating the deductions for repairs, &c., the tithe (if any) is added to the gross estimated rental.
Appeals.—Against Poor Rate.—In the Atetropolis.—It has already been noted that an aggrieved ratepayer has the right to object to an item in the valuation list on two first on the deposit of the new list, the second on its re-deposit as altered. If his grievance is even yet not satisfied he has the right to appeal to sessions. There are two and quarter. To the special sessions he can proceed when his only requisition is for the alteration of the value of some hereditament as assessed in the list. To the quarter sessions he may appeal if he feels aggrieved by reason—(1) Of the total of the gross value of any parish being too high or too low ; (2) of the total of the rateable value of any parish being too high or too low ; or (3) of there being no approved valuation list for some parish. Due notice of the tixne and place at which these sessions will be held is periodically published. And the appellant must give written notice of appeal, where it is to special sessions, on or before the 21 st November in the year in which the list is made, and where the appeal is to quarter sessions, on or before the 14th January in the ensuing year. The notice must specify the correction which the appellant desires to make in the list, and he may include more than one hereditament in the same list. It must in all cases be served on the clerk to the assessment committee which approved the list questioned in the appeal, and unless the appeal relates only to the rateable value of a heredita ment, on the surveyor of taxes of the district to which the appeal relates. And it should be also noticed with regard to service, that—(a) Where the appeal relates to the unfairness or incorrectness of the valuation of, or to the omission of a hereditament occupied by any person other than the appellant, or to the incorrectness of any matter stated in the list with respect to any such heredita ment, then notice should be served on that person ; and (b) if an assessment committee or a surveyor of taxes is the appellant, then it should also be served on the overseers of the parish to which the appeal relates. There is no further appeal, that is to say to the High Court, except on a point of law to be taken on the facts of the case as stated in a special case, agreed upon by the parties or settled by order of a High Court Judge.
Elsewhere, an appeal may be prosecuted before a special or quarter sessions, pro vided the appellant gives twenty-one days' previous written notice to the assessment committee, stating in the notice the grounds of the appeal; and a fourteen days' similar notice to the Parish Council. But no one can appeal unless he has previously made due objection to the list, in respect of the subject of the appeal, and has failed to obtain the relief he thinks just. At a special sessions the only matters into which the justices have jurisdiction to inquire are the true value of the hereditaments the subject of the appeal, and the equality and fairness of the amount at which they have been rated ; they cannot inquire into the liability of any hereditaments to be rated. Their decision is binding and conclusive on the parties, unless the party infringing it gives to the other fourteen days' written notice of appeal therefrom to quarter sessions and enters into a recognizance for costs. The notice should specify the matter or cause of the appeal. A quarter sessions has jurisdiction to hear appeals from a special sessions ; but, apart from such appeals, it has an original jurisdiction to hear appeals direct from an assessment committee where the appellant is aggrieved by any poor rate or assessment, or has a material objection to any person being put on or left out of such rate or assessment, or to the sum charged on any person therein. There is a further appeal to the High Court on a point of law.
Borough Rate.—There is an appeal to the local recorder or quarter sessions by the overseers, if they think their parish is aggrieved by the rate on account of the proportions assessed as the contributions of the respective parishes being unequal, or on account of any other just cause or complaint.
County Rate.—And so is there an appeal to quarter sessions against this rate. It may be prosecuted by any overseer or other person charged with the collection and levy of the rate in any parish or place, or by any inhabitant. The appellant would proceed because he has reason to think that the parish or place is aggrieved by the basis or standard—whether on account of some one or more of the parishes being without sufficient cause omitted from the basis or standard ; or on account of the parish being rated on a sum beyond the full and fair annual value of the property therein liable to the county rate ; or on account of some other parish being rated at less than its full and fair annual value.