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FEDERAL FINANCE.
98,900l. in the case of Scotland, and 1,054,000l. in the case of Ireland.
Local Taxation has been the subject of inquiry by a Royal Commission, which issued its final Report in 1901. It appears unnecessary for our present purpose to enter at length into the history of the grants in aid of local taxation; but the following facts and conclusions, summarised from the report of Sir George Murray and Sir Edward Hamilton, must be noted. In 1888 nearly the whole of the licence duties and a proportion of the probate duty were assigned under Mr. Goschen's proposals to the local taxation account the object of the latter being to secure a contribution from personalty to local finance. In 1890 the beer and spirit surtaxes imposed in that year were assigned to the councils of counties and county boroughs, to be applied by them to technical instruction. On this Sir George Murray and Sir Edward Hamilton remark, 'There seems to be no reason why these surtaxes should be so assigned, any more than any other fraction of the public revenue, since they are in no way local, and have nothing to do with technical education, or any other service locally administered.' The Finance Act of 1894 imposed a uniform system of death duties on realty and personalty alike, and the contribution in aid of local rates can no longer be identified as a contribution by personalty. It has become simply a grant out of the general revenue of the country. In 1896 a portion of the estate duty on personalty was assigned to provide the relief given to agricultural land under the Agricultural Rates Act. In Acts subsequently passed for Scotland and Ireland, the assistance to the ratepayers has been provided by a direct charge on the consolidated fund, because the103
