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depot, and this contribution is based not upon the actual
value of the property in the district belonging to the railway
company, but upon its assumed mileage earning-power as
part of the system. It is evident, therefore, that any rearrangement
such as above proposed could not be confined to
the Metropolis, and it is difficult to see how any better
system for rating undertakings of the kind referred to could
be adopted as a general principle.
The Yestry communicated these views to the St. Olave's
Board, and expressed their willingness to join in a Conference
of Rating Authorities to consider so difficult a question,
although they could not advise a departure from the general
principles of rating which govern the whole country, to meet
what, it is hoped, is but a passing depression, affecting a
limited area.
INHABITED HOUSE DUTY.
Upon the invitation of the Southport Company House
Proprietors Association, the Yestry appointed three of their
members to join a deputation, from various provincial
towns, to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to urge that
lodging houses, carried on as a means of living, should be
classed as business premises, and assessed at the lower rate
of Duty.
The deputation waited upon Mr. Goschen on the 14th
December, but did not receive any very definite assurance of
relief.
The objections which the Yestry entertain to the Inhabited
House Duty, as at present levied, are set forth at some length
in their Report for the year 1887-8.