8. EQUALISING OF TAXATION.

There has been no readjustment of the land tax for very many years.
It is a property rate, and originally was rateably levied at four
shillings in the pound. By the small increase in value of some land,
the large increase in value of other land, since the days of Queen
Anne, it has now become unequal in the highest degree. The farm A,
gross rental L100 a year, has a land tax of L5 a year; the suburban
estate B, gross rental L1000 a year, has a land tax of L2:l0s. a
year. The land tax assessors were sworn in annually (twenty years
ago, and may be still) to assess the tax equally, but it was
perfectly understood that the tax was to be collected every year on
the old long-standing assessment.

Suppose that the estates A and B above were reassessed, and that the
land tax on A was put 15s. per annum, that on B L6:15s. a year. Land
tax can be redeemed at about thirty years' purchase. The effect of
the readjustment would have been to take about L120 from the owner of
B and give it in a lump sum to the owner of A. It is probable that
the present owners of both A and B (or predecessors under whom they
claim) had purchased the estates A and B after the land tax had
become fixed on them, and the amount of land tax would then have been
fully considered in the price paid.

We see thus that in the case of the land tax, as we saw above of the
tithe, and as is also the case in any tax permanently on, a
disturbance of the existing taxation is inequitable. This point is so
much misunderstood that I will give one more illustration.