In the ensuing debate the opponents of the measure relied
chiefly on familiar arguments,—viz., the necessity of adopting the correlative principle of " worsement," the fact that land was already rated to its full value, that the rating of site values would check building and hamper the solution of the housing problem, that it was unjust to lay a burden on one particular form of property in virtue of unearned increment and exempt other forms, and that the enhancement of land values was by no means always due to rate expenditure. Mr. Grant Lawson, replying for the Government in the unavoid- able absence of Mr. Long, rested his opposition to the Bill mainly on its being an incentive to further extravagance, as indicating a new source of revenue which did not in reality exist. On a division the second reading of the Bill, the paradoxical character of which we have demonstrated else- where, was rejected by 183 to 170, or a majority of 13.
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