Agricultural land rebate under Estate Duty law is tested only on property passing at death, not on aggregated descendants' interests.

Rebate under section 35(3) of the Estate Duty Act for agricultural land is tested only on the principal value of the property passing on the deceased's death. The aggregation of lineal descendants' interests under section 34 is confined to determining the rate of estate duty and does not enlarge the estate for deciding rebate eligibility. The statutory scheme therefore treats rebate computation separately from rate computation, so the value of aggregated descendants' property cannot be added when applying the section 35(3) limit.

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Issues: Whether, for grant of rebate under section 35(3) of the Estate Duty Act in respect of agricultural land, the principal value of the estate is to be determined by taking only the property passing on the death of the deceased or by adding the value of the lineal descendants' property aggregated under section 34 of the Act.

Analysis: Section 35(3) grants rebate where the property passing on death consists wholly or partly of agricultural land and the principal value of the estate does not exceed the prescribed limit. The language of the provision, particularly its non obstante clause, shows that the relevant base is only the property passing on the death of the deceased. Section 34 provides for aggregation of the interests of lineal descendants only for the limited purpose of determining the rate of estate duty. That aggregation does not enlarge the estate for testing eligibility to rebate under section 35(3). The statutory scheme therefore keeps the rebate computation distinct from the rate computation.

Conclusion: The rebate under section 35(3) is allowable on the basis of the principal value of the property passing on the death of the deceased alone, without adding the value of the lineal descendants' property aggregated under section 34.

Ratio Decidendi: Aggregation under section 34 operates only for determining the rate of estate duty and cannot be used to defeat eligibility for rebate under section 35(3), which must be tested only on the principal value of the property passing on the deceased's death.

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