Plantations, sporting rights, and mines have become rateable by force of the Rating Act, 1874. That Act brings within the scope of the Statute of Elizabeth the following her.editaments :—(1) Lands used for a plantation or a wood, or for the growth of saleable underwood, and not subject to any right of common ; (2) rights of fowling, shooting, taking or killing game or rabbits, and fishing, when severed froxn the occupation of the land ; and (3) mines of every kind not men tioned in the Statute of Elizabeth. And, incidentally, these hereditaments are also made rateable to all local rates, to the same extent as are those the subject of the old statute. Advertising stations are included by the above-mentioned Act of 1899. Section 3 enacts that where land is used temporarily or per manently for the exhibition of advertisements, or for the erection of a hoarding, frame, post, wall, or structure, used for the exhibition of advertisements, but not otherwise occupied, the person who permits it to be so used, or (if such person cannot be ascertained) the owner of the land, is to be deemed in beneficial occupation of the land, and is to be rateable in respect thereof to the relief of the poor, and to all local rates, according to the value of that use. Premises occupied for other purposes, and rateable in respect thereof to the relief of the poor and local rates, but used in one of the above-mentioned forms for the exhibition of advertisements, will have their gross and rateable value estimated so as to include the increased value from such use.
Evemptions.—Strictly speaking, perhaps, stock-in-trade should be classed with the properties exempted from rateability. It will be sufficient, however, to have merely referred to it here. Places. of worship, 4.c.—By the Poor Rate Exemption Act, 1833, no one can be rated in respect of' a church, district church, chapel, meeting-house, or premises, or such part thereof as is exclusively appropriated to public religious worship, and which (other than such as belong to the Estab lished Church) arc duly certified for the performance of religious worship. This exemption does not extend, however, so as to include rents, profits, or advan tages received or derived by any one from any part of such religious places as are not so exclusively appropriated. But no one is rateable because a religious place, or any vestry room belonging thereto, or any part thereof, is used for Sunday or infant schools, or for the charitable education of the poor. And under the Sunday and Ragged Schools (l?,xemption from Rating) Act, 1869, the authorities can exempt from rateability any building or part of a building used exclusively as a Sunday school or ragged school. For the purposes of this latter Act the term " Sunday School " means any school used for giving religious education gratuitously to children and young persons on Sunday, and on week days for the holding of classes and meetings in furtherance of the same object, mad without pecuniary profit being derived therefrom ; and a " ragged school" means any school used for the gratuitous education of children and young persons of the poorest classes, and for the holding of classes and meetings in furtherance of the same object, and without any pecuniary benefit being derived therefrom except to the teacher', employed. Scientific and literary societies.—No one is subject to rates in respect of land or buildings, or parts of buildings, be longing to a society instituted for purposes of science, literature, or the fine arts exclusively, either as tenant or owner, and occupied by it for the transaction of its business, and for carrying into effect its purposes. But the society must be supported wholly or in part by annual voluntary contributions, and does not, and by its laws cannot, xnake any dividend, gift, division, or bonus in money to or between any of its members ; and it must obtain a certificate from the Registrar of Friendly Societies that it is entitled to the benefit of the Scientific Societies Act, 1843, which confers this exemption. If a certificate is refused the society can submit its rules to its local county or borough council, which has power to grant the exemption. A ratepayer has a right to appeal to quarter sessions when a certificate is granted to suet a society, and he objects to the grant. Militia and Volunteer storehouses are also exempt. Burial purchased or acquires under the Burial Acts for the purpose of a burial ground (with or without buildings thereon) is exempt from rating except at the value or rent at which it was assessed at the time of the purchase or acquisition. Crown and
Government property is, as a matter of principle, free absolutely from all liability to rates, though the principle has been largely infringed by statute as well as by the voluntary concessions of the State. Perhaps the most general practice is for the Crown to make voluntary contributions to the local rates in accordance with a definite scale, but upon its own assessment of rateable value. Where statute has fixed the Crown with a rateability it is very usual to provide that the rate payable shall not exceed that at which the property concerned was rated when it was acquired by the Crown.
Differential rdting.—With respect to their rateability the legislature, in a number of instances, has differentiated between various properties in accordance with their nature—not, be it noted, in accordance with their value. Thus agricultural land, in respect of most rates, is treated differently from urban land, to the extent that the former practically enjoys a partial exemption, the reason being that the services the subject of a particular rate are not always proportioned to the value of the agricultural land in the same degree as to the value of the urban land. The differentiation may be produced by two alternative methods :—(1) Different classes of properties may be assessed at an equal rate, but upon different proportions of their annual value, e.g., one property at half, another at three quarters, another in full : (2) Different rates in the £ may be charged upon the full annual value of the different classes of property, e.g., ls. in the on one property, 1 s. 6d. on another, and 2s. on a third. The operation in practice of these two methods, so far as it is a variation from the standard value or rate, will now be noticed in the above order. (1) In respect of the poor rate the only properties whose net annual values are not necessarily the values for the purposes of assessment arc burial grounds and certain government properties, the par ticulars of the differentiation in these cases having already been noticed as forms of exemption. To the General District Rate : all tithes, tithe commutation, rent charges, arable, meadow or pasture lands, woodlands, orchards, allotments, market gardens, nursery grounds, land covered with water, canals, and railways are assessed upon only a quarter of the net annual value ; and the like differentiation is made in respect of rates for special expenses of rural district councils and water rates. And for the Metropolitan Sewers Rates : only a quarter of the rateaLle value is the basis of assessment in the case of land used as arable, meadow or pasture ground, woodland, orchard, market-garden, hop, herb, flower, fruit or nursery ground. (2) First, in respect of the poor rate. During the continuance of the Agricultural Rates Act, 1896, agricultural land is liable to pay one-half only of the rate in the £ payable in respect of buildings and other hereditaments. For this purpose the term "agricultural land " means any land used as arable, meadow or pasture ground only, cottage gardelns exceeding one quarter of an acre, market gardens, nursery grounds, orchards; or allotments ; but it does not include land occupied together with a house as a park, gardens, other than as aforesaid, pleasure grounds, or any land kept o r preserved mainly or exclusively for purposes of sport or recreation, or land used as a racecourse ; and " cottage ' means a house occupied as a dwelling by a person of the labouring classes. Then, for lighting rates, the owners and occupiers of houses, buildings, and property (other than land) are rated at and pay a rate in the £ three times greater than that at which the owners and occupiers of land are rated at and pay. Here every courtyard, yard, or garden (the garden not being a market-garden or nursery ground) is included in and makes part of the on the house or other buildings to which they may be respectively attached. And tithes, tithe rent charges, moduses, compositions real, and other payments in lieu of tithe are assessed in the same proportion of their annual value as land. With regard to rates for public libraries, those persons who are assessed in respect of lands used as arable, meadow or pasture ground only, or as woodlands or market-gardens, or nursery grounds, are entitled to an allowance of two-thirds of the sum assessed in respect of those lands for the poor rate. There is also a different rating for the purposes of the lighting and sewers rates in the metropolis.