When

Larceny-Lost bank note-Misdirection. Prisoner received from his wife a 101. Bank of England note, which she had found, and passed it away. The note was indorsed " E. May” only, and the prisoner, when asked to put his name and address on it by the person to whom he passed it, wrote on it a false name and address. charged at the police station, the prisoner said he knew nothing about the note. The jury were directed that, if they were satisfied that the prisoner could within a reasonable time have found the and if, instead of waiting at all, the prisoner immediately converted the note to his own use, intending to deprive the owner of it, it would be larceny. The prisoner was convicted.

owner,

Held, that the jury ought to have been asked whether the prisoner at the time he received the note, believed the owner could be found; and that the conviction was wrong.

CASE reserved for the opinion of this court.

At the general quarter session of the peace, holden by adjournment at St. Mary, Newington, in and for the county of Surrey, on Wednesday, the 26th July 1871, William George Green Knight was tried and convicted on an indictment, charging him in the first count with feloniously stealing 101. in money, of the property of John Willimot Morgan; and, in the second count, with feloniously receiving the same money, well knowing it to have been stolen, upon the following evidence:

Richard Adye Bailey, clerk in the Bank of England, having been sworn, produced a cancelled note of such bank for 10l., paid 31st May 1871, No. 30,483, dated 22nd March 1871, indorsed E. May; E. Randall, 8, Cowland-terrace, Wandsworth-road; G. Hollyman, 345, Wandsworth-road.

John Willimot Morgan, on his oath, stated as follows:

I am traveller and collector. On the 26th May last I received a 101. note at Deptford, between one and halfpast one o'clock, indorsed E. May. I put it in my lefthand waistcoat pocket. I went to South Bermondsey station, a quarter of a mile from where I received the note, and thence to Loughborough-park station. called upon a customer in the Brixton-road. I walked from there to Clapham. I got there about three o'clock. It was the Oaks day. I walked along the Clapham-road. I put the note in my waistcoat pocket with my watch. I did not take out the note after. I missed it when I arrived at the office, Arthur-street, London-bridge. I went from Clapham station to the Borough-road station. I went the same night to Scotland-yard and gave information to the police. When at Clapham I went down High-street to Muswell's the butcher. I came up Acre. lane. I left Clapham at four o'clock by train.

George Hollyman, on his oath, stated :

I am a clothier, carrying on business at 345, Wandsworth-road. On the 26th May last the prisoner came to me between seven and eight o'clock in the evening. I knew him by sight. I did not know his name. He purchased a waistcoat, two pairs of drawers, and other things, together of the value of 12s. 9d. He tendered a

[C. CAS. R.

Bank of England note for 101. The note produced by the witness Bailey is the one. I asked prisoner to indorse it, which he did. "E. Randall," as on the note produced. I put my initials under his name and gave him change. The articles produced by witness Tucker are of the same description as those I sold to prisoner. I will swear they are the same.

George Tucker, metropolitan police constable, 53 W. on his oath, stated:

I received a communication from the witness Hollyman. I apprehended the prisoner in the Wandsworth-road. about 7.15, on Saturday, 24th June. I said to him, I shall place you under arrest for some illegal proceedings or transactions in passing a 101. Bank of England note, and a gentleman will charge you at the station. He did not say anything. I took him to the station. The sergeant there said to him, "You are charged with illegally converting this note to your own use." The prisoner said, "I know nothing about the note." He gave me his address, 2, Pensbury-street, Wandsworth-road, and gave me his latch key to be given to his wife. I took one pair of drawers from the prisoner, and detective Lonsdale brought me the waistcoat and other pair of drawers, which I now produce. When I apprehended him he said, "All right, I will go with you It is wrong in the depo

sition. I know nothing about it." The prisoner's statement before the committing magistrate was read as follows:

My wife found it in Clapham-road on the Oaks-day, from half past four to five, between Manor-street and the Two Brewers. She left it till I came home from work at half-past six, and then told me what she had found. I said I did not think it was a good one, but I would take it to Mr. Hollyman and see if he could change it. I took it to him and thought no more about it. I had money to pay for the things in my pocket if it had not been all right. I did not come by it by dishonest means.

The counsel for the prosecution presented the case to the jury as a larceny of lost property by

the finder.

The prisoner's counsel contended there was no evidence to show that the prisoner at the time when the note came into his possession had the intention of wrongfully and feloniously depriving the owner of his property, or that he knew or had any reasonable means of ascertaining to whom the note belonged (the only mark on the same when found being "E. May," not the name of the owner), and consequently, upon the authority of Reg. v. Thurborn (1 Den. C. C. 388; 3 Cox C. C. 453); Reg. v. Moore (30 L. J. 77, M. C.; 8 Cox C. C. 416); and Reg. v. Glyde (37 L. J. 107, M. C.; 11 Cox C. C. 103), the prisoner ought to be acquitted, it being laid down that on each of those points (as well as the conversion), there must be evidence to satisfy the jury.

The court, however, left the case to the jury, telling them that, if they were satisfied that the prisoner could within a reasonable time have found the owner, but, instead of waiting at all, he immediately converted the note to his own use by changing it, and that he intended to deprive the owner of the note against his will, it would be larceny, and in considering their verdict it would be right for them to remember the conduct of the prisoner, viz., that when asked by the person who changed the note to write his name and address on the back of the note, he wrote a false name and a false address, and when charged at the police station with the offence he said, I know nothing about the note.

The jury returned a verdict of guilty.

The court thereupon reserved for the decision of the Court for Crown Cases Reserved the question whether, under the circumstances, the conviction was right?

Judgment upon the prisoner was respited, and

C. CAS. R.]

he was committed to the custody of the governor of the common gaol at Newington, in the said county, until the decision of the Court for Crown Cases Reserved should be known.

E. RICHARDS ADAMS, Chairman. No counsel appeared to argue for the prisoner. Oppenheim for the prosecution.-The question in this case is whether there was evidence to show that the prisoner at the time he appropriated the note to his own use believed he could find the owner of it. The case of Reg. v. Glyde decided that the finder of a sovereign in the high road, who at the time of finding had no reasonable means of knowing who the owner was, but who at that time intended to appropriate it, even if the owner should afterwards be discovered, and to whom the owner was speedily made known, when he refused to give it up, was held not guilty of larceny. That decision was come to on the ground that there was no evidence to show that when the prisoner picked up the sovereign he had any reason to believe that the true owner could be found. Here the evidence is different. [LUSH, J.-But that point was not put to the jury.] The question reserved for this court is whether, under the circumstances, having regard to the prisoner's conduct in dealing with the note and denying all knowledge of it, the conviction was right. Now, may not the court after verdict infer that the jury substantially found that point.

KELLY, C. B.-It is quite clear that this conviction cannot be sustained. There was no evidence that the prisoner, at the time when he first received this note from his wife, believed that the owner of it could be found; and if there had been, the proper question has not been left to the jury.

BYLES, J.-I also am of opinion that this conviction cannot be sustained. The prisoner found the note in his wife's hands, and he did not know who the owner was; and there is no evidence that he had the means of knowing. The appropriating it under these circumstances is not larceny.

PIGOTT, B.-The question left to the jury, and which they have found, is whether they were satisfied that the prisoner could have found the owner within a reasonable time. That finding is quite consistent with this, that the prisoner himself believed he could not have found the true

[Q. B.

COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH. Reported by J. SHORTT and M. W. MCKELLAR, Esqrs., Barristers-at-law.

Wednesday, Nov. 8, 1871.

REG. (on the prosecution of the Assessment Committee of St. Pancras, resps.) v. THE GOVERNORS OF THE FOUNDLING HOSPITAL (apps.)

Valuation Metropolis Act 1869 (32 & 33 Vict., c. 67) ss. 45, 54-Valuation list-Entry of gross and rateable value-Exceptional principle of valuation. By sect. 45 of the Valuation Metropolis Act 1869 (32 & 33 Vict. c. 67), the valuation made in pursuance of that Act is to be conclusive evidence of the gross value and of the rateable value of the several hereditaments included therein for the purpose of certain rates and taxes; but by sect. 54 nothing contained in the Act is to affect "any exemption or deduction from or allowance out of any rate or tax whatever, or any privilege of or provision for being rated or taxed on any exceptional principle of valuation."

The assessment committee of St. Pancras having entered in the valuation list prepared by them in pursuance of the above Act, the true gross value and the true rateable value of lands belonging to the Foundling Hospital, notwithstanding that the Foundling Hospital Act (13 Geo. 2, c. xxix.) provided that such lands were not to be rated at any higher value than that at which they were rated in 1739— Held, that the true gross and true rateable value had been rightly inserted on the valuation list; and that it was not for the assessment committee to take into account the exceptional principles of valuation saved by sect. 54 of the Valuation Metropolis Act 1869.

THIS was a case stated for the opinion of the court by the Court of General Assessment Sessions for the Metropolis.

On an appeal on behalf of the governors and guardians of the hospital for the maintenance and education of exposed and deserted young children against a decision of the assessment committee of the parish of St. Pancras, Middlesex, approving and confirming an assessment in the new valuation list for the said parish, made under and in pursuance of the Valuation Metropolis Act 1869, whereby the building and premises used by the appellants for the purposes of the said hospital was assessed at 19001. gross, and 15927. rateable value, the Court of General Sessions for the Metropolis, holden on the 27th Feb. 1871, confirmed the assessment without costs, subject to the opinion of the court on the following

CASE.

1. The Foundling Hospital was incorporated by royal charter, in the year 1739, under the name of "The governors and guardians of the hospital for the maintenance and education of exposed and deserted young children," and by an Act of Parliament passed in the same year, 13 Geo. 2, c, 29, the powers granted by the charter were confirmed and enlarged. This Act, after reciting the charter and the powers thereby given for the purchase of lands and the purchase or erection of an hospital, proceeds as follows:

And be it therefore enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal and Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that the said corporation called the governors and guardians of the hospital for the maintenance and education of exposed and deserted young children, and their successors, T

Q. B.]

shall have power by any instrument under their common seal, to contract for or to purchase, any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, provided the same do not exceed the value of 4000 a year in fee beyond repairs, or to take or purchase for any term or terms of years, or as tenants from year to year or at will, any lands or tenements whatsoever, to hold and enjoy the same, and to erect any house or houses, building or buildings thereon, or to convert any house or houses, building or buildings which they shall so purchase or hire for that purpose, to be an hospital or hospitals for the reception of such poor and exposed children, in such manner as to the said corpora tion shall seem meet, and be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all and every house or houses, lands, tenements, or hereditaments, which shall at any time hereafter be purchased or hired by the said corporation, to be used and converted into an hospital or hos pitals as aforesaid, or on which any such hospital or hospitals, house or houses, shall be erected, shall at all times hereafter, whilst such house or houses, lands, tenements, or hereditaments, shall continue in possession of the said corporation, be rated and assessed to all rates and assessments, at such yearly rates and value, and in such proportion as such house or houses, lands, tenements, or hereditaments were rated and assessed in the year 1739, and shall not at any time hereafter so long as they shall continue in the possession of the said corporation as aforesaid, be rated or assessed at any higher value notwithstanding any improvement which shall be hereafter made by the said corporation, of or upon the same, by erecting any such house or houses, or other building or buildings, or by converting any building or buildings into such hospital or hospitals, house or houses, any laws, statute, or usage to the contrary notwithstanding.

2. In the year 1747, the corporation purchased the freehold estate on part of which the hospital now stands. It consists of about 56 acres, lying in one block, and was at that time open ground, but with the exception of the inclosed space surrounding and attached to the hospital building, it is now covered with houses, and may be described roughly as lying between Guildford-street on the south, Tavistock-place on the north, Russell-square on the west, and Gray's-inn-lane on the east. It is situate in the three parishes of St. Pancras, St. George the Martyr, and St. George, Bloomsbury. The hospital building itself was commenced about 1742, and finished about

1752.

3. The portion of the lands so purchased, and still held by the hospital, were rated and assessed in the year 1739 to the poor rate of St. Pancras, at the yearly ra e and value of 2751. gross and 2347. net, and the governors and guardians of the said hospital, since they acquired the aforesaid lands down to the present time, have been uniformly rated and assessed in respect of the said lands, and of the offices and buildings thereon, used for the purposes of the hospital, at the yearly rateable value of 2341. to all rates and assessments whatsoever, except such as were made under, and by virtue of, the 34 Geo. 3, c. 96, as hereinafter mentioned.

4. Up to 1790 no building leases were granted by the hospital on their estate, but in that year a committee was appointed, empowered to grant leases, and determine, amongst other things, what proportions, if any, of the expense of railing and maintaining the new squares (that is, Mecklenburgh and Brunswick-squares), and their pavements, should be borne by the hospital.

5. In consequence of the large building operations now projected and commenced, the hospital applied for and obtained in 1794 an Act of Parliament, entitled "An Act for paving, cleansing, lighting, watching, watering, and otherwise

[Q. B. improving and keeping in repair the streets, squares, and other public passages which are and shall be made upon certain pieces of ground in the parishes of St. Pancras, St. George the Martyr, and St. George Bloomsbury, or some or one of them in the county of Middlesex belonging to the hospital for the maintenance and education of exposed and deserted young children, commonly called the Foundling Hospital." By this Act, after reciting that the governors and guardians of the hospital were seised for the use of the hospital of certain pieces of ground containing 56 acres, or there abouts, situate in the several parishes of St. Pancras, St. George the Martyr, and St. George Bloomsbury, in the county of Middlesex, or some or one of them, and that several persons had entered into contracts with the said governors and guardians for laying out and building several streets, squares, and other public passages and places upon the said pieces of ground, and that the same were then carrying on, and that it would contribute to the benefit and safety of all persons who were or should become inhabitants of the said several streets, squares, and other public passages and places, and to all persons who should have occasion to pass along the same if provision was made for fencing and paving, or otherwise repairing and keeping in repair such intended streets, squares, and other public passages and places, and also for cleansing, lighting, watching, and watering, and keeping the same free from all nuisances, annoyances, and encroachments; it was enacted that certain persons therein named should be commissioners for carrying the Act into execution for the term of three years, and that in May 1795, and in every succeeding year, the governors and guardians of the hospital should at their annual meeting, to be held under their Act of Parliament, elect twentyone of the said governors and guardians to be commissioners for the succeeding year, and at the same time certain of the inhabitants, being householders residing within the limits of the Act, should elect twenty-one persons, having certain property qualifications within the limits of this Act as commissioners to act jointly with the twenty-one governors and guardians of the hospital. All the pavements of the carriage-ways, and footways, and things purchased or gotten for the purposes of the Act, are vested in the commissioners, and the commissioners are empowered to cause the several streets, &c., then or thereafter to be made within the limits of the Act to be paved, and such pavements to be kept in good repair, and to cause the streets, squares, and other public passages and places, to be cleaned, lighted, and watched, and watered, and the sides thereof, and also the middle of any squares, to be fenced or enclosed with iron rails, and all encroachments, obstructions, nuisances, and annoyances therein to be removed, and drains, sinks, gutters, and watercourses to be made for conveying the water off from the streets, &c., and it is provided that no person shall (under a penalty) alter the form or break up the ground or pavements of the carriage ways or footways, within any of the said streets, &c., or make the same otherwise than as should be directed by the commissioners. The commissioners are also empowered to cause lamps to be set up in the streets, and the houses to be named and numbered, and to cause the water to be conveyed from the roofs of houses by pipes, and from them into the common drains or sewers. 6. With regard to the expenses of carrying out

Q. B.]

the purposes of the Act, it is provided that one or more rate or rates, assessment or assessments, for the purpose of repairing, paving, cleansing, lighting, watering, and watching of the several streets, &c., within the limits of the Act, should be laid and assessed by the commissioners once or oftener in one year, upon all persons who should inhabit, hold, use, occupy, possess, or enjoy any land, ground, house, shop, warehouses, coach houses, stable, cellar, vault, building, or tenement in any of the said streets, squares, and other public passages, and places, in such sum or sums of money as the commissioners should direct; but so that the rates or assessments for any one year should not exceed the following sums: For paving, cleansing and lighting, 2s. in the pound, according to the yearly rent or value of such houses, &c.; for railing and ornamenting the areas or middle spaces of the squares, 1s. in the pound, according to the yearly rent or value of such houses as should be erected and built in such squares; for watching the said streets, &c., 6d. in the pound according to the yearly rent or value of the houses, &c., situate within the limits of the Act; and for watering such streets, &c., 6d. in the pound according to the yearly rent or value of the houses, &c., situate within the respective squares and other public passages and places to be watered in pursuance and according to the directions of the Act, and the commissioners were to cause separate and distinct accounts to be kept of the produce of the respective rates or assessments, and of the application of the same respectively.

7. The annual value of the tenements to be rated and assessed, was to be rated and ascertained according to the real rack rent or full yearly value thereof, or in any fair and equal proportion of such real rack rent or full yearly value as the commissioners should think proper.

8. There is a special provision in the Act as to the assessment of the hospital as follows:

Provided also that the aforesaid hospital, commonly called the Foundling Hospital, and the offices, buildings, and grounds, belonging, or to belong thereto, and used for the purposes of the hospital, shall be rated or assessed for all or any of the purposes of this Act, after and according to such annual sum or value as shall be equal to three-fifth parts of the amount of the several annual values which shall be rated or assessed upon the several houses abutting upon Guildford-street from Milman-street to the mews opposite to Lansdowne-place, and the several houses now built or hereafter to be built abutting and adjoining upon such other streets or ways as do or shall immediately adjoin the boundary walls or fences of the said hospital.

In the course of about thirty years from the commencement of operations in 1790, the whole of the hospital estate was laid out in squares and streets and let on building leases for terms of, in most cases, ninety-nine years, except the portion of ground inclosed by the walls of the hospital itself and retained for its use. This inclosed portion of about nine acres in extent is wholly within St. Pancras parish.

9. From the time of the passing of the 34 Geo. 3, c. 9 (A.D. 1794) down to the passing of the Police Metropolitan Act (10 Geo. 4, c. 44, a.d. 1829) the governors and guardians of the said hospital were rated and assessed by the commissioners appointed under the 34 Geo. 3, c. 96, for all the purposes of the said Act, including that of watching the streets and squares, &c., within the limits of the said Act, on a value ascertained in a manner provided by the said Act as above mentioned.

[Q. B.

10. In the year 1829 the Police Metropolitan Act (10 Geo. 4, c. 44), was passed. By that Act, sect. 19, the night watch within their district was discontinued, and the power of assessing and levying any rate for that purpose ceased. By sect. 23 a rate for the metropolitan police became leviable according to the valuation for the time being acted upon in assessing the county rate. Accordingly from and after the passing of that Act down to the present time the governors and guardians of the said hospital ceased to be rated under the 34 Geo. 3, c. 96, for watching the streets and squares aforesaid, and have been rated for the metropolitan police upon the basis of the county rate under the said Act of 1829 at the yearly rate and value of 2341. rateable value.

11. For many years before and at the time of the passing of the Metropolis Local Management Act (18 & 19 Vict. c. 120) in 1855 the governors and guardians of the said hospital continued to be rated under the 34 Geo. 3, c. 96, for all the purposes of that Act, except that of watching upon the basis of value above stated, 12441., being the actual amount upon which the rate was made.

12. In 1855 the Metropolis Local Management Act was passed and came into operation on the 1st Jan. 1856. This Act recites that it is expedient that provision should be made for the better local management of the metropolis in respect of sewerage and drainage, and the pavement, cleansing, lighting, and improvement thereof.

13. The government of the metropolis for the purposes of the Act is placed under the control of the Metropolitan Board of Works and of certain local district boards of which the St. Pancras parish is one.

14. The principal sections relative to rating and assessment are as follows:

Sect. 161:

The overseers of the poor of every parish to whom any such order as aforesaid is issued, shall levy the amount mentioned therein according to the exigency thereof, and shall for that purpose make separate equal pound rates upon their parish, or the part thereof upon which any sum specified in such order is required to be levied in respect of each sum thereby ordered to be levied, that is to say, a separate rate in respect of each sum ordered to be levied for paying expenses connected with sewerage, to be called a sewers rate. A separate rate in respect of each sum rdered to be levied for defraying expenses of lighting (where a separate sum is ordered to be levied for defraying such expenses) to be called a lighting rate. And a separate sum in respect of each sum ordered to be levied for defraying other expenses of executing this Act, to be called a general rate, and shall make such respective rates of such amount in the pound on the annual value of the property rateable, as will in their judgment, having regard to all circumstances, be sufficient to raise the sums specified in such order; and such rates shall be levied on the persons and in respect of the property by law rateable to the relief of the poor in the respective parishes, and shall be assessed upon the net annual value of such property ascertained by the rate for the time being for the relief of the poor; and the said overseers shall for the purpose of levying such rates proceed in the same manner, and have the same powers, remedies, and privileges as for levying money for the relief of the poor; and all such rates shall be allowed in the same manner, and be subject to all the same provisions in relation to appeal, and to excusing persons from payment on account of poverty and otherwise as the rate for the relief of the poor in the same parish, and such overseers shall pay to the treasurer of the vestry or board, or otherwise as in such order directed, the amount mentioned in the order within the time or respective times specified for that purpose, and the excess if any which may have been levied beyond such amount, which excess shall be placed to the credit of the parish, or part in which the same has been

Q. B.]

levied. And the said overseers shall at the time of making any such payment deliver with the money a note in writing signed by them specifying the amount so paid, which note shall be kept as a voucher for the receipt of that particular amount, and the receipt of the treasurer of the vestry or board of any proper officer or person of, or belonging to any bank into which such money is so paid specifying the amount so paid to him by the overseers, shall be a sufficient discharge to the overseers for such amount.

Sect. 162:

Provided always that all such hospitals, public schools, and other public buildings, dead walls, and void spaces of ground as are now by law rateable to any rate for the costs and charges of paving or repairing the pavements within any parochial or other district, either separately or jointly with any other object or objects (except only places of religious worship and burial grounds), or places which have been used for burial grounds and are not used for any other purpose, shal be rateable under this Act to the like extent and for the like objects or purposes as they may no be rated, and the rates to be made in respect of such objects or purposes shall be payable by the persons now liable to pay the same, and be recoverable in like manner as any rate to which such buildings and spaces of ground are now rateable as aforesaid in respect of like objects or purposes.

15. The following sections relate to the repeal and varying of inconsistent or conflicting local Acts.

Sect. 247:

All Acts of Parliament in force in any parish or place to which this Act extends, or in any part of such parish or place shall, so far as the same are inconsistent with the provisions of this Act be repealed as regards such parish or place, or such part thereof, notwithstanding any provisions of this Act continuing and transferring respectively to vestries or parishes, and transferring to district boards any duties, powers, authorities now or vested in vestries, commissioners, or other bodies.

Sect. 248:

Upon the petition of the Metropolitan Board of Works, or of any district board or vestry representing to Her Majesty in Council, that by reason of the provisions of any local Act of Parliament relating to any district or parish, or any part thereof respective y, difficulties have arisen in the execution of this Act and of such local Act, or either of them, and praying for a suspension or alteration of all or any of the provisions of such local Act, or for the establishment of other provisions in lieu thereof, under this enactment, it shall be lawful for Her Majesty, by order in council, to suspend or alter all or any of the provisions of such local Act, and to make other provisions in relation to the matters thereof, as Her ajesty, with the advice of Her Privy Council, may think necessary under the circumstances of the case, and every such order in council shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament within one month after the making thereof, if Parliament be then sitting, or if Parliament be not sitting, then within one month after the next meeting of Parliament, and shall be published in the London Gazette. Provided always, that no such order in council shall remain in force beyond the term of one year from the making thereof."

16. From and after the passing of the Metropolitan Local Management Act down to the present time the governors and guardians of the said hospital have ceased to be rated for the purposes of paving, lighting, cleansing, or any other purpose whatsoever within the limits of the 34 Geo. 3, c. 96, and have been rated for the purposes of the Metropolitan Local Management Act within the parish of St. Pancras as well as to all other rates up to April 1867 at the yearly rent and value of 2341. gross, and 2341. rateable value, and since that time of 2751. gross, and 2341. rateable value.

17. Up to the passing of the Metropolitan Local Management Act, the governors and guardians of the said hospital paid sewerage rates to the commissioners of sewers upon the yearly rate and

[Q. B.

value of 2341. rateable value. Since the passing of the said Act they have paid sewers rates to the parish of St. Pancras upon the same value as above stated.

18. On the 9th Aug. 1869, the Valuation Metropolis Act 1869 was passed to provide (according to the preamble) a common basis of value for the purposes of government and local taxations, and to promote uniformity in the assessment of rateable property in the metropolis. This Act incorporates in it sects. 17 to 21, inclusive, of 25 & 26 Vict. c. 103.

19. By sect. 45 of the said Act it is enacted as follows:

The valuation list for the time being in force shall be deemed to have been duly made in accordance with this Act, and the Act incorporated herewith, and shall for all or any purposes in this section mentioned be conclusive evidence of the gross value and of the rateable value of the several hereditaments included therein, and of the fact that all hereditaments required to be inserted therein have been so inserted, that is to say

(1.) For the purpose of any of the following rates, which are made during the year that the list is in force, namely, the county rate, the metropolitan police rate, the church rate, the highway rate, the poor rate, the police, sewers, consolidated, and other rates in the City of London; the sewers, lighting, general, and other rates levied by order of district boards or vestries, the main drainage improvement, and other rates and sums assessed on any part of the metropolis by the Metropolitan Board of Works, assessments for contributions under the Metropolitan Poor Rate 1867, and every other rate, assessment, and contribution levied, made, and required in the metropolis on the basis of value.

(2.) For the purpose of any of the following taxes which become chargeaole during the year that the list is in force, namely:

(a) The tax on houses, levied under the House Tax Act and the Act therein incorporated or referred to.

(b) Any tax assessed in pursuance of the Income Tax Act, and any Acts continuing or amending the same on any lands, tenements, and hereditaments in all cases where the tax is charged on the gross value and not on profits.

(3.) For the purpose of determining so far as it is applicable, the value of any hereditament included therein for the purposes of the Acts relating to the sale of exciseable liquors, to the qualification of a juror, to the qualification of a vestryman, and an auditor of accounts under the Metropolis Management Act 1855, and to the qualification of a guardian, and of a manager under the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, or the Metropolitan Poor Act 1867, at any time at which such value is required to be ascertained.

And in construing the Metropolitan Police Act and the Acts amending the same, the last valuation for the time being acted upon in assessing the county rate shall be deemed to mean the valuation list for the time being in force.

And in construing the County Rate Act and Acts referring to the valuation estimate basis or standard for the county rate, the valuation estimate, basis or standard shall be deemed to be the rateable value stated in such list.

And in construing the House Tax Act and the Acts therein incorporated or referred to, the full and just yearly rate shall be deemed to be the gross value stated in such list.

And in construing the Inc me Tax Act and Acts continuing or amending that Act with respect to schedules A. and B. thereof, annual value shall be deemed to mean the gross value stated in such lists.

20. By section 54 it is provided that—

Nothing contained in this Act, or the Act incorporated herewith, shall affect any exemption or deduction from, or allowance out of, any rate or tax whatever, or any privilege of or provision for being rated or taxed on any exceptional principle of valuation.

21. On the hearing of the appeal the appellants contended that the sums 2751. gross and 2341. net should alone be inserted in the valuation list, such sums being the sums ascertained in the manner