LEVY FOR DEFENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 193, 17 August 1939, Page 5

LEVY FOR DEFENCE.

HALF PER CENT ON LAND

TAX OX IXDIVIDUAL EARNINGS

(By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WKLLIXGTON, this day.

Disappointment that the Government had not made any attempt to raise money for defence purposes by means of a levy on unimproved land values was expressed in the House of Representatives last night by Mr. W. J. Lyon (Government, Waitemata). He urged that defence was needed essentially for the protection of property. If land owners and others considered it necessary to insure against fire or accident, surely they would not object to paying insurance against some raider coining down to damage their holdings. A capital levy of A per cent on the Dominion's land would produce on the basis of unimproved value a total sum of £1,500,000.'

Mr. J. G. Coates (National, Kaipara) : Is that the objective of the Labour party ?

Mr. Lyon: The people with most at stake should make the largest contribution.

Mr. Coates: You cannot kill property, but you can kill lives.

Mr. Lyon added that if a tax were levied on individuals earning from £200 per annum upwards, the Government could still get its £1,500,000, and such a course was not unreasonable. He suggested that the contribution shohld be £1 on a person whose wages ranged from £200 to £500 a year, £2 for earnings between £j ) and £1000, with a steady rise for higher incomes.