Why Alter the Assessment Basis.

But someone might ask, Why alter the assessment basis at all? He would tell them why. If they started with the 1d in the £1 and gradually increased it, the selling: value would become smaller and smaller, and the basis would finally slip away altogether; but the ground rental value could never slip away. It would always remain while people preferred to give more for a position in Queen-street than in any inferior business street; and people would always be prepared to give more for good country land than for poor land, and for land that was conveniently situated than for land that was not. Therefore the ground rent would remain the measure of the preference that people would shew for particular [unclear: sites] over the most inferior sites that could be used for their purposes at all. It would always continue to exist.