THE LAND AND TAXATION.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17815, 14 July 1923, Page 13

THE LAND AND TAXATION.

j ♦ I VIEWS OF A NORTHERN I MEMBER. I (SPECIAL TO "THE I'HESS.") WELLINGTON.. July 13. Mr K. S. "Williams, the member for the Bay of Plenty, though he seldom r .speaks at any great length in the House of Representatives, always talks sense when he does speak, and there nro few, if any, members who are held in greater esteem. '-Mr Williams spoke in the Budget debate to-day and was very attentively listened to. Referring to laud settlement, he said there were three enemies to greater production, the land speculator, the ■ blackberry, and the rabbit. Gen. rally, ho did not approve of Government jni R-nerenee in private business, but he j thought the Government should ti\}ce j some action in regard to the first- | mentioned enemy, and enact a law that i would prevent land speculation. in ' 3. Government; might make a condition that land should not bo held for speculation. They could easily stipulate that anv man who held the title to land purchased should, if necessary, be called upon to prove within a certain number of years that he was not holding the- land for speculative purposes. In regard t,o the destruction of blackberry, he thought the matter was one lor chemists, and the Government might very well spend sorao money in endeavouring to find a chemical remedy. Rabbits were a source of danger, but he was thankful to say that largely owing to the foresight and energy of the member for Gisborne in the establishment of a Rabbit Board, the pest had been kept out of the district. He advocated c-axe in dealing with the remaining forest lands of the Dominion. A great deal of damage had been done through erosion in consequence of the denudation of the 1)3011 country of timber in the past. He expressed the opinion that in this respect the greatest care should be taken in the. settlement of the Urewera Country. From what he had seen, he did not think a great deal of that lull country would ever be much good for grazing. He did not agree that all the criticism of the large landowners had beon justified. Those who now held large areas were usually the owners of land that wits far back from means of communication. They held the rough lauds of tho coast and the interior and the high lands of the South Island, and they were not the selfish, unscrupulous men that some imagined them to bo. Their lands wore not suitable tor closo settlement. In so far as iho high lands of the South were concerned, he, like a good many more, had only seen them from the deck of a steamer or tho window of a railway carnage, but from what he had seen, he did npt envy those who had to work them. In regard to income-tax on land, he thought that a graduated tax within reasonable limits was a sounder tax than heavy death duties. If the Government levied heavy death duties they were taking something from the capital of the country, something; that was security for the loans that tho country raised for works. If the Government cut into capital in that way and used it as income, they would be taking something away from the capital of the country, and that; was unsound finance. A reasonable incometax with a lighter death duty was a sounder principle to adopt. • He urged, in the interests of closer settlement and the settlement of tho rating question, a more active policy in regard to tho indiviclualisation of ' Native titles. The present 6tate of affair* was very unsatisfactory in many parts of the' North Island. Ifi the Native;; were prepared to work their own land they should) be allowed to do so, and tbeaij the lands would pay tax and races. In concluding his speech, Mr Williams paid a feeling tribute both to the Opposition and to tho Labour Party for the consideration they had shown him during tho last election, when he was still suffering, from a serious motor accident. Neither of thdse parties, he said, had run an opponent against him when he was laid up. H© wished to assure them how very much their kindly action was appreciated both by his family and himself, and he wished to take that opportunity of thanking 1 them for it. I ■