TAXATION.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7391, 18 February 1902, Page 2

TAXATION.

In another column we publish a report of the meeting of the local branch of the New Zealand Farmers' Ucion. One of the principal subjects discussed was taxation. It is of interest to 6how side by side with the views of representative farmer* those of city organisations, and without comment we may quote the arguments adduced to a recent meeting of the Wellington Trades and Labour Council on the subject. The speaker, Mr W. McLean, formerly M.H.B. for Wellington, took the view that there must be a radical alteration in the whole incideuce of taxation. Taking the figures for 1898 — why those for a later year were not taken was not explained— he showed that in that year there was paid in Customs duties the enormous sum of £1,985,261. In addition to that, there was the land tax, amounting to £267,286, and the income tax— £115,210. There wao no reliable record of the landowners in the oolony later than Sir George Grey's Doomsday Book. This, however, stated them at 27,828. These paid in Customs duties £194,775, and (say) in land tax £267,286, and in income tax. £115,210. The workers were thus left to pay £1,857,980 to make up the total Customs receipts of £1,935,215. In the year 1878 the total value of the unimproved land in the colony was £73,000,000, and in 1898 it had increased to £84,401,244. Since thai- date there had been no valuation made, but, . considering the great increase in the values of land during recent years, it was fair now to assume that the total was about £100,000,000. Was it fair, then, that those who owned £100,000,000 should pay only £577,271 towards the revenue of the colony, while thore who had next to nothing paid £1,857,980— and this annually ? The first step in the direction of reform was to sweep away the £500 exemption. If every man's land was taxed at the rate of Id per £, this on the total value of £100,000,000 would bring in £416,666 18s 4d. Do away with exemptions, and if a man had £100 worth of land he would have to pay only 8a 4d as an annual tax. The small farmer, with his £500 worth, would have to pay £2 Is Bd, and if Customs duties were reduced in proportion, where would be tho hardship? Would it ruin him if he paid 2d in the £ ? No. The speaker was prepared to assert that the proper way to reform the land tax was to make it, say, 1 per cent, on all unimproved land in the oolony. This .would produce £1,000,000, and reduoe the Customs dues by a corresponding amount.

Tho main point in the whole contention is the feasibility of abolishing the exemption.