SUPER TAX ON LAND.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19862, 25 February 1930, Page 10

SUPER TAX ON LAND.

ROUNDLY condemned.

DISCUSSION AT WELLINGTON

[THS PRESS Special Service.]

WELLINGTON, February 24. "An outrage," "a piece of ill-con-sidered legislation," u.iJ '•another nail in the col"n of the Government ' were ,ome of the terms used by Wellington Mjliuturs, and Uukiucs.e Sn'reierring to the super tax on land and tlie way in .winch the measure imposing it Had hit some of ' l l> 'n a ill ries'i na d e in the city show that comparatively lew appeals have been I, l( i<red in rtellingtun against supertax assessments, but that the lew men wiio have had dealings with the Comkvijon set up to deal with eases ot hardship have receivd a lair hearing. Several accountants pointed out that Wellington was not a rural centie, and never would be in the sense that f'hristch'ireh was. Canterbury had a I.tri'i: percentage oi the total number' of objections lodged. The few solicitors and. accountants who had liiul with the Commission, however, generally expressed satisfaction with its treatment, although most of them hastened to condemn the super tax measure. The chief '■umphint against the Commission was made by a woman who had cause to place her ease before it. ''All I wns 1111 inH,lltin K enquiry, ' "Tliev are fair-minded men, and are .riving "a sympathetic hearing Jo oil cases of pooplu who can t. nffora to n-iy " said a Wellington solicitor, whose clientele includes a few farmers affected by the super tax measure. lne members in their own minds must realise that the super tax is an iniquitous thing, which is calculated to penalise a certain small section of th" community. The super tax is going to create unemployment, for, with super tax, the farmer has not the money, and will not spend more than the absolute minimum on labour. If the Government wanted to show it wan sincere, it would of least wipe out the super tax for the present year. It is not even now too late to wipe it out for the present year. When the prices of our staple products uro at such a low ebb, the whole thing is an outrage, and will sound the death-knell of the Government."

"In every way they arc squeezing the farmer taxpayer," declared the _ manager of a Icrge mercantile firm, with an intimate knowledge of the financial operations of farmers throughout the country. "Thev are screwing the lifeWood out of him," he added. "It. means that the man who is the mainstay of the country cannot employ labour, and thnt more work'ess men are thrown on the labour market. The suner tax is a niece of ill-considered legislation, and the whole thing is wrong."