THE LAND TAX.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume LIII, Issue 5533, 1 October 1929, Page 2

THE LAND TAX.

To the Editor,

j Sir, —-You have a letter in yesterday's ..Mail signed by Mr Orton| in which ,he tfte laige land owner to- in my letter.. Well of course if he says so I suppose it is correct, but I might) state that; ; I 'had no idea whoj yo.u were referring- to when you first 1 wrote on this subject. iM'r Bradley is an exceptional landowner and as he has leased his farmi we would hardly count him as such ; but as a land-lord and I take it he pays income tax on his rent, round about £2000 per year and if the man who leases his farm; gets it at pre war ■ rental, well, 1 I think he can quite easily afford to pay the land tax. 'So Mr Bradley is going to sack his two men over thiss tax, and one of. them has been with him a number of years. Well if the 'Labour party are up to this sort of thing they will get Ward' to make the tax still stiffer and then these men may get a farm of their own the way things are now they will never own one when they receive under £4 per week and liable to gelt the sack whenever there is a party in power that does not do what Mr Bradley and his friends wish. It was very unfortunate for Mr Bradley that his letter with the little tale about the unemployed: getting 27s per • day should be in the ssan>? column as your local' and general, where yo:u show that the day after having an ad. in the paper wanting an assistant a local firm received 57 replies and they were still coming in. Then again a few months ago I was up North and a farmer in Taranaki advertised for share milkers, they to receive one-third of cream cheque only, and he: received 178 answers to his add nearly all from the 1 towns; but then! I suppose they were all wasters, but J what I cannot understand' is these men bothering to hunt for work] When they can make 27s per day on J the relief works. Also it was not to j pay for his £70,000,000 Ward imposed ; this tax but to make up what 'Coates and' Coy. wasted, etc. Now j

is it any wonder that the Labour Party arc. bitter at the large land owners whan ir??n like Mr Bradley with an income of £2000 or more discribe all' unemployed as wasters, when these same Labour men have seen their brothers and friends hunt day after day looking for a job-. We know quite 'well there are some men who will not work, also we know there are a lot of land owners who will not'pay a decent-wage or erect a decent house for their men- to live in. The difference 1 is this. The loafer will nearly starve and the landowner lives in greater luxury. Now 'Mr Bradley wants me to sign my name, but as I do not own. £40,000 worth of land, mortgage free and do not want to take the chance of getting 27s per day on the unemployed works I think it is safer to keep the jdb I .have and sign myself Yours, etc., UABGE LANDOWNER'S WASTER. Sept. 2Sth, 1029.