TAX ON NATIVE LANDS,

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 147, 22 June 1923, Page 9

TAX ON NATIVE LANDS,

SERIOUS POSITION WITH LEASES.

(By Tclesraph.—Parliamentary Re-porter.)

WELLINGTON, Thursday

The Hon. A. T. Ngata (Eastern Maori member), has presented a petition from Mr. Rawson, East Coast Native Commissioner, praying that the principle adopted by Parliament of fixing the limit for land taxation at 25 per cent of the revenue be applied to various blocks vested in the Commissioner, subject to several leases and mortgages, for natives beneficially interested. The petitioner quotes rents and land tax to show that, as the result of the Finance Act, 1017, the land tax almost equals the total rent. For instance, in respect to Mangatu No. 1 block, the rent received ■from 1016 till 1922 amounted to £26,062, while the land tax claimed during the same period totalled £18,177. For the year ended March, 1921, rents from the block amounted to £4224. while the assessed land tax, plus penalty, actually totalled £5433. Combination of th*e adoption of the graduation principle and increasing values have caused the land tax to grow out of all proportion to revenue. Petitioner asks that steps he taken to alleviate the burden to the natives arising from unexpected and far reaching legal effect of the Act of 1917, in rendering native lands subject to taxation, which, petitioner has already expressed the opinion, was never intended.