TAXING TO DEATH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 186, 8 August 1930, Page 6

TAXING TO DEATH.

An illustration of what heavy taxes may do to English landowners is seen in the case of the Duke of Montrose. His large estates, which have been in his family for 400 years, have been offered for sale either to the farmers who now work on the land or to any other buyer. Death duties have so drained his resources that he can no longer fulfill his obligations to tenants, labourers and the public, which has for many years been freely admitted to the islands of Loch Lomond, Ben Lomond-and other beautiful parts of the estate.

The farmers have not the money to buy the land, and it is thought that the death duties are based on a higher valuation than the estates will bring in the open market. The duke has therefore offered them to the Government to satisfy the tax claim. The offer has been refused, but he insists that State management of his lands is preferable to their "sale under the hammer and that the Government has the power to accept the land, in payment of taxes.

The justifiable pride of the owner in the fulfilment of his obligations to tenants, and, in addition, his pleasure in improving schools, hospitals, village social life and personal relations with the whole countryside, make his removal from that friendly work seem cruel; and it may be that his very success intimidates prospective now even the public authorities.