Hawke's Bay Herald. THURSDAY, JUNUARY 30, 1879.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5294, 30 January 1879, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald. THURSDAY, JUNUARY 30, 1879.

Some interesting particulars, in connection with the Victorian land tax, have been culled by the Sydney Morning Herald from a supplement to the Government Gazette of Victoria, dated 11th December, 1878. A few of these particulars will show how much the character of the tax differs from that of the New Zealand land tax, the former being evidently intended as a " bursting up " tax, while the object of the latter is to mako the land bear in some degree its proportion of the taxation of the country. Under the Land Tax Act passed in Victoria in 1877, all taxable land is divided into four classes, according to its estimated grazing capabilities. Of these four classes, the first is land capable of carrying two or more sheep to the acre, which is assessed at £4 per acre ; the second is land capable of carrying two sheep to the acre, assessed at £2 per acre ; the third, one sheep to the acre, £2; and the fourth, less than one sheep to the acre, £1. The tax being threepence in the pound, it follows that first-class land is taxed at one shilling per acre. Exemption, is allowed to {the extent of £2500 on the gross value of the whole possessions of a landowner. Obviously, the effect of the exemption is to limit the tax, in a considerable degree, to the owners of large estates. This is plainly shown by the list of landowners liable to the tax, which is published in the Victorian Gazette. The list includes 825 names, but of these there are 41 owners who contribute more than one-third of the whole proceeds of the tax. One of them, the Hon. W. J. Clarke, owns six estates, comprising 164,352 acres, valued at £497,227, for which the annual tax payable is £5546 lls 9d, or about one twenty-sixth of the whole of the land tax of the colony. These 41 persons — including, of course, Mr Clarke — own an average area of 51,205 acres each. The next largest holders of land number 161, owning an average of 17,770 acres each. They contribute considerably over a third of the whole tax ; thus leaving less than one-fourth of the tax to be paid by the remaining 623 owners, holding on the average 3063 acres each, and paying an average of £57 each. ' ' It is evident from these facts," remarks the Sydney Morning Herald, "that this impost falls almost entirely on the ' big estates.' Two hundred persons pay three-fourths of the whole amount, the other one-fourth is shared by more than 600 persons, and all other proprietors throughout the colony of Victoria remain untaxed, although they own probably not less in the aggregate than ten million acres." But this is only the beginning of the proccess. Gradually the grasp upon the large estates will be tightened and the hold upon the smaller ones loosened ; the exemptions will be widened, and the rate of the tax increased, until the final process of "bursting up" is accomplished.. But legislation is needed for the consummation of this design, and it is not likely that it will be obtained unless the Legislative Council is rendered powerless to prevent it. Perhaps before that is done the present large landowners will have j removed themselves from the list, but; as matters are now going in Victoria, they j will have to do so at a great sacrifice.