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The Police precepts for the year amounted to £5,880.
It will thus be seen that, of the £75,350 raised during the
year, the sum of £44,058, or considerably more than half, was required
by bodies beyond the control of the Vestry.
Assessment —The year was marked by the general quinquennial
valuation of the Metropolis, under the Valuation (Metropolis)
Act, 1869. The Assessment Committee sat 18 days from
the 6th of April to the 21st of May for some six hours each day,
and completed the re-assessment on the latter date. A special
feature of the assessment was the action taken with regard to the
rating of public-houses. It was considered that the premiums
paid for public-houses were, in part, only another name for rent
paid in advance, and therefore one-third of the premium, ascertained
or estimated, was in all cases assessed at five per cent, and
added to the rental, &c., to make up the gross assessment. This
principle of including a portion of the premium value had
already been adopted elsewhere, and was upheld at the Union
Assessment Committee, although many of the assessments
were reduced on appeal; but in the case of the " Clown"
Public-house, St. John Street Road, where the Union Assessment
Committee had reduced the gross value from £205 to £166, the
Vestry appealed to the Special Sessions against such decision,
and succeeded in getting the original value restored.
The works of the Metropolitan Railway Company, the New
River Company, the Gas Light and Coke Company, and the
Alexandra Palace Railway Company, were placed in the hands
of Messrs. Castle & Son for re-valuation, and their valuations
were as follows :—
Metropolitan Railway
Gross.
Rateable.
Gross.
Rateable
Company, raised from
£17,000
12,750 to
£28,356
25,460
New River Coy ,,
10,200
8,500
12,917
11,116
Gas Light and Coke Coy- ,,
3,300
2,750
10,048
9,477
Alexandra Palace Railway, New assessment
80
56
These valuations were confirmed by the Assessment Committee
of the Union, and were accepted by the Companies, with