LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 66, 15 September 1943, Page 4

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

MR. HISLOP AND RATING

Sir,—The Leader of the Opposition has already declared his policy to abolish the hospital rate (in favour of land owners) as it is levied now and to repair the loss of revenue by the imposition of graduated taxation on wages, salaries, and incomes; no mention of the Consolidated Fund was made in his speech. Who speaks for the National .Party, Mr. Holland or Mr. Hislop? The Consolidated Fund, totalling £35,500,000, includes £19,100,000 from income tax, £10,160,000 from Customs and sales taxes, and a beggarly million pounds from land tax. The Social Security Fund has already been implemented by over £4,000,000 from the Consolidated Fund, yet Mr. Hislop claims that non-ratepayers who have "large assets and incomes" do not contribute a penny! It is an economic axiom that a tax upon economic rent (which the rating of-unimproved land values is) cannot be shifted, yet Mr. Hislop claims that it can, so why his concern for the land owner? The Commissioner of Taxes has stated that 75 per cent, of the income tax is paid by incomes of £500 and under, hence it is paid largely out of wages and salaries. Mr. Holland's idea of graduation, therefore, is ridiculous, as the higher incomes, no matter how heavily taxed, will not replace the revenue lost by reducing taxation on wages and salaries. It necessarily follows that Mr. Hislop's proposal involves increased taxation on necessaries through the Customs, which include taxes upon sugar, tea, boots, and bread. Mr. Hislop knows that all economists of repute denounce taxes upon the necessaries of life.— We are, etc.,

THE WELLINGTON SOCIETY FOR THE TAXATION OF LAND VALUES.