Page:Public General Statutes 1896.djvu/270

260 3.—(1.) Where any spending authority require in any half year or other period to raise from two or more parishes a sum by a rate to which this Act applies, they shall, in determining the net-amount to be so raised, deduct the sum issuable to them in respect of the said rate on account of their share of the annual grant for the said half year or other period, and the net amount after that deduction shall, where it would otherwise be raised in proportion to the rateable value, be raised in proportion to the assessable value of those parishes.

(2.) For the purposes of this section the assessable value of a parish shall be the rateable value thereof reduced by an amount equal to one half of the rateable value of the agricultural land in the parish.

4.—(1.) The Local Government Board shall, as soon as may be after passing of this Act, certify the amount —
 * (a) of the annual grant to be paid to the Local Taxation Account; and
 * (b) of the share of such grant to be paid annually to each spending authority, under this Act, and for that purpose shall determine in the prescribed manner the amount which for the purposes of this Act is to be taken as having been raised during the last year before the passing of this Act by any rate to which this Act applies for the expenditure of each spending authority.

(2.) Such proportion of the whole amount so taken to be raised in respect of any hereditaments or parishes as the Local Government Board estimate to be the proportion of the total rateable value of those hereditaments or parishes which represents the value of agricultural land, shall be taken for the purposes of this Act as the amount raised during the said year, by the said authority, by the said rate, in respect of agricultural land, and one half of that amount shall be taken as the deficiency which will arise from the provisions of this Act in the produce of the said rate.

(3.) A sum equal to the total amount of the deficiency thus estimated for all the spending authorities in England shall be the amount of the annual grant, and a sum equal to the deficiency thus estimated in the case of each spending authority shall be the share of that spending, authority. in the annual grant, and the Local Government Board shall certify the same accordingly.

(4.) The Local Government Board, in acting under this section, shall obtain such information and make such inquiries, and in such manner as they think fit.

(5.) The Local Government Board may in case of. error amend, or for the purpose of meeting any alteration in an area or authority to which a certificate under this section, and any such amendment or variation shall have effect from the date of the original certificate, or any later date fixed by the Board; but save as aforesaid, a certificate shall be final and binding on all persons.

(6.) The Local Government Board. may give provisional certificates if they think necessary for the purpose of enabling the first payments to and out of the Local Taxation Account under this Act