TAXATION VIEWS

Evening Star, Issue 20256, 17 August 1929, Page 12

TAXATION VIEWS

LANDOWNER'S CONGRATULATIONS [From Ouk Parliamentari: Reporter.] WELLINGTON. August 10. Travelling i<p to Wellington, Mr Hawk© (the member for Kaiapoi) was approached on the steamer by ;i landowner owning a very largo area. .This gentleman, said Mr Hawke in the House to-day, quite unexpectedly gave him the advice io go on to the session and help pass the land tax legislation. “I congratulate the United Party,” said this landowner, “on the very bold and courageous stand they are taking in regard to land settlement. J. sbgll be bit. up to the extent of about £3OO extra on land tax, but I recognise the value of the policy, and 1 have to congratulate them.”

The member for Kaiapoi assured the House that the landowner in question had made,, a .very careful study of the land question for years. His own opinion, as! the representative of an electorate of small holdings, was that the Budget was specially designed to promote subdivision, and thero_ would possibly be no such results in Knjapoi. However, there were tens of thousands of acres of land in Canterbury which had never seen a plough, but which if cut into smaller blocks, well sweetened by cultivation would produce double tlie present output. Though Canterbury was considered to be fairly closely settled compared with other parts oT the dominion, he believed that under the Budget proposals there would he a great improvement in the productivity of that province. Most of the protests against the Budget came, he thought, from people who had listened only to Reform speeches or the ’Reform newspapers. They were not based on close examination of the actual Budget proposals. HARDSHIP CLAUSE NEEDED. Many cases of hardship would result from the operation <of the supertax on land, remarked Mr Sykes (Masterton). Ho therefore appealed to the Prime Minister to include in his coming tax legislation a hardship clause enabling such cases to be investigated by a suitable tribunal and relief given. Ho had a case in point—an area of ninety-one acres situated near a prosperous town, and, like thousands of other acres in the vicinity, used exclusivcy for dairying. Its unimproved value was £1.4,4LI, and the land tax' was £ll.l. 'The supertax wond add £.13, and the local rates were £2BO. Mr Wilford: What wolihl he take for i L y Mr Sykes repeated that this was a case of hardship, and, as the Finance Minister boro no facial resemblance to Lenin or 'Trotsky, ho was as sure there would he a hardship clause in the Land Tax Bill.