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ON RATING REAL PROPERTY.

property

REAL property in the poor-laws signifies Real lands, buildings, and other immoveable defined. things, which are the direct objects of sight and touch.

Lands and houses are placed first in the statute in the list of things to be rated, as an example of the description of property intended to be taxed.

its appur

tenances.

Land, in its legal sense, is a comprehen- Land and sive term, and means the soil or surface of the earth, and every thing upon it, or underneath it; therefore natural productions, and artificial improvements, are rateable to the poor.

It has been determined by the judges, that all things which are real, and in yearly revenue, must be taxed to the poor." However, in most parishes, real property,

The rate is confined to

generally

land and

buildings.

Annual value rateable.

Land is rated higher

ings.

such as land and buildings, with their appurtenances, are the only property to be depended upon for a series of years. They are substantial, visible, and stationary; and their annual value being once ascertained, remains the same for a number of years. The rate upon them needs no alteration, until there is an alteration in the property, which seldom occurs.

Real property is rateable according to its annual value, or the rent that it is fairly worth, making adequate allowances for such as is liable to decay. It is of no consequence, whether the occupier of real property reside in the parish where it is situate or not, as he becomes a rateable inhabitant, by the occupation of real property within the district.

Land, from its intrinsic worth, bears the than build- highest rate of any property, in proportion to its annual value. It is not, like buildings, liable to decay; but on the contrary, becomes more valuable by use and cultivation. When first inclosed from a wild state, no tax can be imposed till it is productive

of annual value; and in proportion as it is improved by cultivation, it bears a higher

rate.

rated ac

Land is cording to

about half

its profits.

In laying a rate upon land according to the average value of the rent, only about half its profits are rated; namely, that part paid to the landlord. Land should yield a profit of two rents, one for the landlord, and the other for the maintenance of the tenant's family, and rewarding his industry. When the farm is in the occupation of its owner, he receives all the profit; let to a tenant, only part of it. portions of profit to each, will, of course, tenant's

but when

The pro

Value of

rent and

profit con

vary according to local circumstances, and stantly the change of the times. Sometimes the fluctuating. tenant's share is entirely absorbed by the scarcity of the crop, or the depression in its value; whilst the landlord's share is certain, so long as the tenant has any thing to pay with. On the other hand, some years may be so favourable, that the tenant receives two or three times his average profit, whilst the landlord still remains stationary. Thus the balance of profit is constantly fluctuat

ing, which renders any previous calculation, for one particular year, entirely illusive. Seasons and prices are so changeable, that it is impossible to ascertain, beforehand, what amount of rents farm will bear. Calculations may be formed of the average expences and produce of a number of years, and thus fix a rent for future years, that may prove quite ruinous, or beneficial, to the tenant. If the average be taken for so many as twenty years back, it would be very doubtful whether the average of the next twenty years would be the same. Even if it happened to prove so, and a few of the first succeeding years included in the future average be bad ones, the farmer might be ruined before the profitable years arrived; or if the first years should prove the best in the average, the tenant would, by an equal chance, get far above his half share of the profits of the farm, especially if he should happen to quit at their termination. But these are extreme cases, which may not frequently occur, and however objectionable any plan of fixing the annual

value for rent or rates may appear, yet it is certain some mode must be adopted. In our work on "Valuing Rents and Tillages," a plan of ascertaining rents is given, which is founded on the principle of deducting all the local expences and outgoings of management, on an acre of the best and worst soils, from the average value of the produce, and, allowing ten per cent. on capital employed, the remainder is awarded as rent. When the rents of soils of the best and worst qualities are found, the intermediate qualities may be judged by comparison and relative shades of difference.

Although constantly changing in

rents are

value, they

are allowed

at the same

amount for

As rents, like all other things, are liable to constant alteration, and as landlords and tenants are aware of this uncertainty in the value of their profits, they are commonly to remain agreed in suffering the nominal amount of rent to remain unaltered, when once fixed, for several years; in order that years of peculiar good or bad seasons shall have a chance of being counteracted by those of a different description.

a

number of

years.

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