LAND AND LABOUR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16558, 23 May 1914, Page 9

LAND AND LABOUR.

(Tills column, weekly set aside for the discussion of land and labour problems, is edited by Mr Arthur Withy, cenoral secretary of the New Zealand Land Values League, with whom alone rests the responsibility for the opinions expressed therein.)

LAND MONOPOLY IN THE TRANSVAAL.

GOVERNMENT COMMISSION FAVOURS TAX ON LAND VALUES.

Recent cablo messages informed us of the success of the Labour candidates at the Transvaal Provincial elections. They captured twenty-three seats_ out of thirty-six, and are therefore in a position to give effect to their platform, the planks in which include : (1) Taxation of the unimproved or site value of all land in the Transvaal, mineral, urban and agricultural; (2) local option for each municipality to rate land values only; (3) abolition of the B'ty and sex qualifications for the iise; and (4) proportional representation in all elections.

Tho rating and taxation reforms above mentioned are being vigorously promoted in South Africa as a means' to break down land monopoly ns Well as to relieve industry, buildings and improvements generally from burdensome taxation. It is interesting, too. to note that much of the inspiration in regard to this work confessedly comes from the

OBJECT-LESSONS AFFORDED BY NEW ZEALAND.

As regards local taxation, the proposals of tho Labour Party are supported by the recently issued report oi the Transvaal Government Small Holdings Commission, which states: — “ There exists in the Transvaal an abundance of vacant and unimproved land suitable for agriculture, fruitgrowing, cattle-raising, dairying and other farming pursuits, and intersected by lines of railway serving a greet market —much of it in close proximity to that market. We need only refer to the valleys of the Klip River and tc the land intersected by and adjacent to the railway lines from the Vaa' River, Heidelberg, Potchefsstroom, Ermelo, Veerust and Pretoria, connecting with the railway system of the Witwatersrand. “The land is there, but it is not available to the small holder at a price which bears a relation to its productive capacity. The only means of acquiring it is through the medium of purchase at public auction or by private treaty, either directly or with the assistance provided by the machinery of the Land Settlement Act; and as we have already stated, that Act will be instrumental in raising the price as the demand increases. “ The fact that agricultural land almost entirely escapes taxation tends tc THE HOLDING UP OF LAND and to the maintenance of fictitious prices, and accounts to a great extent lor tho quantity ,of unimproved land, and the absence of a larger rural population.” Among a number of recommendations for practical small holdings legislation, the Commissioners advocate a graduated tax on land values “ based on tho principles of land taxation ob ; tuining in tho dominion of New Zealand,” and they make tho following most significant statement: — “The system of taxing the unimproved value of land will, m our view, provide the most effective means of regulating the price of agricultural land and of preventing it from rising above tho level winch represents its value fir farming purposes. That system will thus tend to CHECK SPECULATION IN LAND

and to render it available for all.purposes of settlement at reasonable prices We believe such a measure to be essential to tlio success of any land settlement policy,, and there can be littledoubt that it m IU prove of great assistance in furthering the purposes of tin people of the Union,' so far as those purposes are disclosed by the provisions of the Land Settlement Act, 1912, Land Bank Apt, 1912, and the Cooperative' Agricultural Societies Act, 1.908 (Transvaal) and its amendments.” It is clear that South Africa, like New Zealand, suffers from the holding up of ■ good land near good markets, and already well served by roads, railways.' etc., and from the consequent banishment of wonhl-ho settlers to the back-blocks. It is good to see that South Africa is beginning to realise that State-purchase of land for settlement, which the Massey _ Government is showing such a. suspicions, fondness for, is no real solution of the land problem, and must, in fact, be “instrumental in raising the price as the demand increases.” But it is to be regretted that the Commissioners show a. partiality for the graduated land tax, -which even the present Government has coquetted .-with, and which lends itself too readily to bogus subdivisions to be really effective as a burster up of big estates. It. is to bo hoped, however, that in this respect the. Labour Party will prove more radical than the Small Holdings Commission, and that they will carry, not a graduated land tax on pur New Zealand, lines, but a flat rate land tax .without exemption and without graduation. FLAT RATE LAND TAX BEST. Any tax on land values ought to bo at tho same rate per £ (say a.penny, twopeuca or moro) on the unimproved valuo of all land. If a. uniform tax is imposed on tho market value in each case, the tax will graduate, itself according as the market values vary. And a flat rate land tax will discourage all dog-in-the-mangerism, all land speculation, all land withholding, not only by large landholders but by small land-withholders also. _ Clearly it is just as great an injury to a country, just as groat a handicap to the farming industry and to industry generally, for £1,000,000 worth of land to bo held out of use by 1000 small holders as by 100, by 10, or even by one largo holder. And, further, not only have small farmers and other small land-users, in. whoso interests exemption and graduation are usually urged, nothing to fear from a flat rato land tax coupled with a corresponding reduction of Customs taxes, but. as I have frequently shown, they stand to gain, and to gain considerably, by tho change. SMALL HOLDERS WILL GAIN.

For example, in New Zealand an additional flat rate land tax of Id in the £ on unimproved land values, without any exemption for this second penny, would realise about £700,000. If Customs taxes were reduced by that amount that would mean, allowing-50 per cent only for dealers’ profits on the taxes, a reduction in the cost of living of £1,000,000 a year—£l _ per head, or £5 per family of five. While, as against this relief, the small landholder, whether in town or country, would havo to pay under the Id in the £ land tax 8s 4d only on an unimproved value of £IOO, 16s 8d on an unimproved value of £2OO, 2os on £3OO, 33s •kl on £ 100, and only 41s Bd, or less than half the gain under Customs taxes, cm an unimnroved value of £ooo. In fact, since there are 1200 pennies in the £5, the amount paid under the Id jn the £ land tax would not balance the relief' under Customs taxes till the unimproved value reached £I2OO. Up to that balancing-point the landholders would gain by the change, beyond that point they would pay mono than they pay now. SMALLEST LANDHOLDERS GAIN MOST. The smaller the landholders the more they would stand to gain; the bigger the landholders the more they would have to pay; and surely that is as it ought to be. A landholder, for instance, with an unimproved value of

£I3OO would have to pay 8s 4d a year more than he now pays. But manifestly he can afford to pay that 8s 4d more far better than the small holder with, say, an unimproved value of £IOO can afford to pay £5, as he now does, instead of the 8s 4d only that ho would pay under the new Id in the £ land tax.

Let the progressive forces of New Zealand, Liberal and Labour, only unite on a live fighting platform, embracing (1) proportional representation, and (2) reduction of tho cost of living on the lines indicated above, and they may' well turn out tho present Tory Government by two to one, as the Labour Party in the Transvaal has done, and as wo did in New Zealand way back in 1890, under the leadership of the Hon John Ballanco and Sir George Grey. Let us, then, make common cause against the common enemy. LLOYD GEORGE AT HUDDERSFIELD. THE LAND QUESTION THE ROOT QUESTION. Speaking at the Town Hall, Huddersfield on March 21, the Right Hon D. Lloyd George, M.P., who met with a great reception, said that the question lie more especially wanted to call attention to in Huddersfield was the land question. (Cheers.) “ That question,” said . Mr Lloyd George, “was raised in 1885 by no less a person than Mr Chamberlain. It has been put off for about thirty years. We are going to have another try at it, because we find it is at the bottom of every social reform. I remember I

was on a Cabinet Committee looking into the question of two or three strikes in London—carters, dockers, stevedores —there were no end of questions of that kind threatening to give trouble at that momont, and we had a Cabinet Committee to investigate the matter. We summoned before us a number of witnesses practically from every trade. The rail way men came in as as well. 1 will toll you what we discovered—that wages in all these trades were more or less dominated by the wages of agricultural labour. (Hear, hear.) In the counties where agricultural labour is low paid that is where you got the railwaymen worst paid, the dockers worst paid, the carters worst paid. So we think the best thing to make the wages in the towns better is to put the wages of the agricultural labourer' on a sounder footing. (Cheers.) In fact, all the great questions that affect the social condition of the people are controlled very largely by the conditions of the land problem. Wages, the food, health, the amenities of the life of the people—touch on any of those questions at any point, and you will find that you are near the land question. There is ho 1 town problem, there is no country problem; it is one problem absolutely intertwined. '“ One of.the first things the’Government intended to do was to see that a man was not taxed by the landlord on the goodwill which ho himself had created. The .landlord’ insisted upon having not only what was his own, but what belonged to others. That was where the Government were going to. draw the lino by their legislation. They bad'no desire to take away any man’s property. Their legislation would bo based upon the principle of giving to every man what was his own, and to prevent him taking what belonged to other people.” . : i ■ -.G'.v o< Dealing with overcrowding lin Hudlcrsfield, Mi Lloyd George said, and I trust our Tory contemporaries will take i note of this fact and note also that they have not got rating on unimproved /alue in Hudderseld :—“ You have in the centre of your town 81 houses to the acre. I know of. many-a case .vbere.you have 80. acres to-.oneJipuse. There.ought to,..be..a,.little mqro,readjustment of the balance. Those who are in the eighty houses to the acre work hard from morning till night, contributing to the wealth of tho nation. I wish I felt certain that the sU-acres-to-the-house man always does be same. The housing problem is one of the most uigent we can think of.. Von cannot grow a great nation in con*, gested areas.” And to deal with the wobleni Mr Lloyd George advocates the untaxing of the homes of the people and tho rating and taxation of unimproved land values. ARTHUR WITHY.