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refer to it. It will be remembered that the valuation appealed against
in respect of the company's works, mains and pipes, in Islington, was
£60,000 gross, and £54,490 rateable, and, in considering these figures
and the very large reduction upon them subsequently made by the Court
of Quarter Sessions, it should be borne in mind that during the previous
quinquennial period, viz., 1885 to 1890, the company had, upon the
advice of their own valuer, after conference with the Clerk to the Committee,
agreed to and paid upon a valuation of £52,389 gross, and
£45,000 rateable, and that during the quinquennial period, 1880-85,
they had, under like circumstances, agreed to and paid upon a valuation
of £43,200 gross, and £28,500 rateable. The increase in the company's
assessment made by the Overseers in 1890 was therefore but little more
than what the increase in the number of houses in the parish and the
consequent increase in the gas rental of the company might have been
supposed to have warranted.
As was intimated in the previous report, the appeals of the
company against the several valuation lists of such metropolitan
parishes as were affected were, much to the disadvantage of
Islington as was afterwards discovered, consolidated and practically
tried as one. The first hearing was on May 25th, 1891. The case
occupied the Court of Quarter Sessions for 25 days, and was concluded
on March 23rd, 1892. There were, including that of Islington, 15
respondent Assessment Committees representing a much larger number
of parishes—and these respondents, together with the appellants, were,
between them, represented by 21 counsel and 15 expert valuers. The
transcript of the shorthand-writers' notes cover 767 foolscap pages, and
cost £1,188 1s. 6d.
With regard to the result of all this array of learning (legal and
technical), trouble and expenditure, little can be said, except that the
Court, after hearing all the evidence, decided the total rateable value of
the company's works, mains and pipes to have been £616,979, and
apportioned it upon the basis of the receipts in each parish, as shewn in
Table 'A' annexed.
The result to Islington was that the rateable value of the company's
mains and pipes was reduced from £54,490, the amount appealed against,
to £28,873; this latter amount being a reduction of £16,127 on the rateable
value assessed in 1885, and in force up to the date of the appeal.