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44
is situate, stating therein the facts; and after the receipt of
such notice by the Surveyor, the Commissioners acting in the
execution of the Acts relating to the inhabited house duties
shall, upon proof of the facts to their satisfaction, grant relief
from the amount of duty charged in the assessment, so as toconfine
the same to the duty on the value, according to which
the house should, in their opinion, have been assessed, if it
had been a house comprising only the tenements other than
such as are occupied as aforesaid, or are unoccupied.
Every house or tenement which is occupied solely for the purposed
of any trade or business, or of any profession or calling by
which the occupier seeks a livelihood or profit, shall be exempted
from the duties by tbe said Commissioners upon
proof of the facts to their satisfaction, and this exemption
shall take effect, although a servant or other person may
dwell in such house or tenement for the protection thereof.
By the 24th section of the Customs and Inland Revenue
Act, 1881, the term "servant" in the preceding section is to
be taken as meaning, and including, only a menial or domestic
servant employed by the occupier, and the expression "other
person," is to be deemed to mean any person of a similar
grade or description, not otherwise employed by the occupier
who shall be engaged by him, to dwell in the house or tenement,
solely for the protection thereof.
Careful attention to the foregoing provisions will enable
many parishioners to claim exemption, either wholly or
partially, to a considerable extent. The anomaly, however, of
placing boarding-house and lodging-houses keepers in a
different category to private hotel keepers can only be removed
by legislation.
The Vestry readily granted the use of the Vestry Hall for a
meeting of Ratepayers, with a view to concerted action beingtaken
for the purpose of placing the assesssment to Inhabited
House Duty on a more satisfactory footing.