Page:Public General Statutes 1896.djvu/269

1896. 3. This Act may be cited as the Diseases of Animals Act, 1896, and shall be construed as one with the Diseases of Animals Act, 1894, and that Act and this Act may be cited together as the Diseases of Animals Acts, 1894 and 1896.

An Act to amend the Law with respect to the Rating of Occupiers of Agricultural Land in England, and for other purposes connected therewith. [20th July 1896.] E it enacted by the Queen'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, as follows :

1.—(1.) During the continuance of this Act, that is to say, the period of five years after the thirty-first day of March next after the passing of this Act, the occupier of agricultural land in England shall be liable, in the case of every rate to which this Act applies, which this Act to pay one half only of the rate in the pound payable in respect of applies, buildings and other hereditaments.

(2.) This Act shall apply to every rate as defined by this Act, except a rate—

(a) which the occupier of agricultural land is liable, as compared with the occupier of buildings or other hereditaments, to be assessed to or to pay in the proportion of one half or less than one half, or

(b) which is assessed under any commission of sewers or in respect of any drainage, wall, embankment, or other work for the benefit of the land.

2.—(1.) In respect of the deficiency which will arise from the provisions of this Act in the produce of rates made by the spending authorities in England, as herein-after defined, there shall during the continuance of this Act (a) be paid to the Local Taxation Account an annual sum (in this Act referred to as the annual grant) of such amount as is certified under the provisions herein -after contained ; and (b) be issued from the local Taxation Account by half-yearly payments out of the annual grant to each such spending authority a share of that grant of such amount as is certified under the provisions herein-after contained.

(2.) The Commissioners of Inland Revenue, in such manner, by such payments, and under such regulations, as the Treasury direct, shall pay to the Local Taxation Account, out of the proceeds of the estate duty derived in England from personal property, the annual sum required by this section to be paid to that account.

(3.) The first of those payments shall be made during the six months ending on the thirty-first day of March next after the passing of this Act, so as to make up a half-yearly payment to meet the issues to spending authorities on account of the six ensuing months.