LAND VALUE TAXATION TO THE EDITOR.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 71, 25 March 1914, Page 3

LAND VALUE TAXATION TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, — The most satisfactory feature of I MV. Atmore's speech in the Town Hall on the 21st instant was his emphatic condemnation of the Land for Settlements Act and his no le?s emphatic demand for further land value taxation. Time was when it was impossible to get a hearing for those who oppose the purchase of land by the State, notwithstanding the inherent rottenness of the system and' the gross abuses inseparable from it. At last, however, the palpable inequity of the system can be ignored' no longer, and accoidingly the duty lies on thoie who favour the taxation of lond values to keep that great and inevitable SS%)S& before the p#jge* jffiejjail kj& b

beware, however, of this catch-cry about the graduated tax, for an increase of the graduated tax may mean very little. Even Mr. Mas&cy's Government pays tribute to the popularity of land value taxation by boasting of its increased giaduated tax. As a matter of fact, the graduated tax does not begin until the unimproved value reaches £5000, whence youi readers must understand that any increase thereto can affect only a mere handful of land monopolists. It is well to bear in mind, particularly when so much nonsense is talked — and written — about the taxation landowners are called upon to bear in this country, that there ate 96,000 freeholders who are_ totally exempt from land value taxation, the explanation being that the unimproved value of their lands does not exceed £500. It is very much to be regretted that so little is done to make the public realise the inherent vicfousness of this exemption. It is really much more than a £500 exemption, for every landowner, the un- j improved value of whose land does not exceed £1500, is allowed* to deduct £500 fiom the taxable balance. That is to say, he pays his penny in the £1 land tax only on £1000 ! Why should the man who has £1500 unimproved 'value be allowed any exemption? Above the unimproved value of £1500 the exemption diminishes at the late of £1 for every £2 of unimproved value, and hence it does not disappear until the unimproved value reaches £2500 ! To illustrate how the exemption works : A section of land having an unimproved value of £500 is totally exempt from taxation ; a section having an unimproved value of £1500 is allowed an exemption of £500; a section of land having an unimproved value of £2000 is allowed an exemption of £250; and so on. How many landowners get the benefit of the exemption there are no statistics to show; but 96,000 are totally exempted fiom land tax, while another 10,000, whose unimproved value ranges from £500 to £1000. are each allowed a deduction of £500 ! It must be borne in mind that the taxpayers have to pay for the valuation of all this exempted land, although they derive no revenue therefrom. Moreover, in addition, there are some 30,000 Crown tenants who 'are likewise exempt from land tax. The slightest reflection, therefore, will convince any honest man, having regard to our terrific Customs burden', that by far the greater portion of the taxation of the country is borne by the mass of tho people whoown no land, who compete for work in what is euphemistically termed " the labour market," and who can never hope to obtain lar.d until the barriers are broken down by proper taxation. Another imposition, on which the mass of the people will do well to keep an eye, is the exemption from land value taxation of town property. The graduated tax lends itself to this abuse, and. in' fact, tho increase in the graduated tax in 1907 does not apply to town land at oil. The excuse for this exemption is that town land cannot be "cut up," and the object of the graduated tax is to cnfoi'ce subdivision of land. The reply is, first, that the object of land value taxation is twofold— to compel the utilisation of land and to provide a permanent and equitable source of revenue ; secondly, while land monopoly is generally denounced as an evil affecting the country, it is none the less an evil in the towns also. The progress of every town in New Zealand is being more or less retarded by the holding of land by speculators, and tlie evil of excessive rent is due to that cause alone. Consequently the workers — for it is their question, and they are the people who are going to ( settie it — must sec that the taxation 6f land values is made to reach not merely the territorial monopolists of the country, but also those who wax rich on the monopoly of urban lands. We must never forget that the huge revenues appropriated by land monopolists come directly from tho earnings of labour. Once the workers realise this fact they will make shore work of the evil, and by the simple, powerful, and equitable expedient of taxation the monopoly of land can readily bo made a thing of merely disgraceful memory. — 1 am. etc., P. J. O'REGAN. 24th March.