The Press. MONDAY, OCTOBER, 21, 1910. THE RETORT DISCOURTEOUS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13871, 24 October 1910, Page 6

The Press. MONDAY, OCTOBER, 21, 1910. THE RETORT DISCOURTEOUS.

Mr T. E. Taylor, with that sweet •■\ charitableness which, as ereryone knows, is his strongest and mest at- : tractivo trait, accuses us, in a letter in ; this issue, of lying, and of distorting ■ J and misrepresenting his views. It apj J pears that ho did not say that no Go- ! I vernment servant was worth paying ! I moro than £500 a 3-ear ; he only an>jj nounced his intention of voting against II all incfeastti over £500, for the reason ft thai; though some of the proposal inj| creases were deserved, others wore not. I To that extent, therefore, we did Mr '■j? Taylor, unintentionally, an injustice, J] and wo take this opportunity of I correct ing an impression which was shared by others than ourselves. Mr Taylor, wo arc to understand, approved of the salaries of some Government servants being raised above ,I'soo, but lie voted against these increases beciiiso others did not please him. It doi's not seem quite logical to attempt to punish a man fer another's fault, out that is Mr Taylor's business. Wo quito agree with him as to "the '* need for some definite system beiug " adopted to govern advances in " vtJary." The present system is very fai from satisfactory alike to thti cfiicers of tho Public Service and to . tho country. But tho only really *sj effectual method of improving the 'I system —tho appointment of a Public 'ij Se' trice Board—tinds no favour with Mr "l| Taj lor, whose opposition to it helps to % perpetuate tho very system ho conij di inns. An efficient Public Service u > li< ard would take care to fit the man ; to tho billet, and would thereby pre- >! vent misfit appointments such as have, '' fnmi time to tame, attracted public ■jf attention, and it would promote aecordv idj; to merit, and not by seniority or '; ' Jvjvour. It would give, the death-blow j y to political "pull" in the Service, and j J-nhy Mr Taylor, or iiny man who wishes J{! wtll to Now Zealand, should oppose it, J panes imagination. | ,' Mr Taylor aLso cavils at our state- '!! merit of his views on the land question, asserts that he has never urged the ({[confiscation, by tho State of any form ,]- of property. Obviously, we have here . i'le t. ido diti"erencc of opinion as to wliat rti , , it> meant by ''confiscation." Wβ regard Ijj it .is an act of confiscation if the Gojj t vernment purposely imposes such a ,Jj ia\ upon a man's land n& to mako * J.its retention so unprofitable that he ia

glad to "cut his losecs'" ami «?c;ll hh property for what he can gt;t. That is the style of confiscation that finds a strenuous adrorate in the member ior Christchurcli North. In his letter ho claims that tho only nay to make large areas available for settlement is ''to '" impose a graduated land tax suiM- " cient to force the landowner to sell " his surpliw land over and above what <; is necessary to provide a substantial •' income." But in the debate in the lions? last week 31 r Taylor, so far as the report , ; .show, made no reference to making a man get rid of his "surplus"' land; on that occasion he -wanted him t) he compelled to get rid of it all. If, he said, a man was making more than £2f)flO .-. year out of land, "they should '• .-irn at di:-ncases;inp; him." Mr James Allen qtidted the case of a man ovmj in;/ at! estate worth £200,000 who had to pay in taxation £5833 a year, or over 2.1 per cent., and Mr Taylor promptly asserted that it was not heavy onoitjjh. It is all very well for Mr Taylor to say that the landowner v.-ho was forced by the graduated tax ito .<ell would yet cash equal to tho market value of the land he relin-g'.iislu-d, but he conveniently forgets that last week one of the virtues that he claimed for heavy land taxation was j thar. it would bring down land values i quickly—in other words, the taxation i that compelled r. man to .sell would or/orate to prevent him as much ! tor his land as it was worth before the tax was impost-d, a clear case of oon- I fiscation oi value. And .supposing a j man did not want to sell his land, Mr Taylor would not yivo him the | option of ivtaitiiiu: it. Vet in i many instances a landowner is attached to his property by something even more potent than a desire to make money out of it. Unhko many a citjj land speculator, tho mere cash payment oi its market value would be no inducement to him to abandon it. lOven na.storali.sts may possess some sentiment, and the man who successfully establishes a new suburb is not prouder of his foresight and his prolits than the man who went into the back-country when it was really inolated, and made a competency by his enter; rise and courage. Taxation, wo are all agreed, is a necessary evil, but because it is evil, it should be made as li>ht as possible, and no Government and no member of Pnrlian -cut who possessed any sense of justice would so increase it, as to render it equivalent to dispossessing a man of property that he had lawfully acouired.