THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY JANUARY 16, 1879.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5356, 16 January 1879, Page 2

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY JANUARY 16, 1879.

At the present time plenteous showers of "forms" are descending all over the Province, and a great many honest men are no doubt puzzling themselves over the particulars which have to be furnished. It is rather an awkward thing for a man to assess himself for the purpose of taxation. He may privately come to a pretty close estimate for his own satisfaction, but when ho has to go into particulars for assessment the case is different. A man storuly just may distrust himself, and may do himself wrong, but most people will be apt to enter into terms of accommodation with their consciences, and endeavour to lower their taxation, or to evade paying altogether. However, the valuer has power to make full inquiries, and is bound to satisfy himself. This Provincial District of Auckland has been divided into seventy-one districts, under the charge of forty-six valuers, and no fewer than 28,000 forms have been issued for delivery to as many individuals. When these are returned, the lists will be made up, and an opportunity will be given to appeal against the valuations, made to the Assessment Courts under the Hating Act, 1870. All matters connected with the levying of this new tax being entirely novel, it is just possible that objections may be taken to some part of tho procedure, but as yet we have heard of no point of importance. The hyttMon. Times calls attention to tho fact that the 13th section says the Governor " shall divide the colony into districts for the purposes of this Act," whereas he has not done so in tho Gazette notices, having omitted to divide the Chatham Islands and the Auckland Islands. The reason was, no doubt, that any revenue that might be derived from holdings in the Chatham Islands would cost a far greater amount to collect. Then another objection is brought. Tile Order-in-Council divides tho colony into she districts, with a schedule setting forth

thcnumes and boundaries of thesedistricts, and it proceeds to say that the said districts shall comprise the several Counties and all boroughs within the said Counties, and it attaches a second schedule settin" forth the names of those Counties and boroughs. But the following islands were excluded from the Counties Act :— The Great Barrier, ICawau, Waihcke, and Kupiti, the reason being that the owners should not be compelled to contribute to works in the Counties from which they could receive no benefit. But the owners of land 011 these islands should contribute to the land tax, and yet, having been omitted from the Counties, they are not included in any district. The culmination and practical result of all these offences is, that Sir George Grey will not have to pay any tux in respect of Kawau. The first objection may have something in it, as the Government is not entitled to assume that in any particular district it would not pay to collect the tax, and nobody liable under the Act should be able to tiud themselves practically exempted by the regulations made by Ministers, and published in the (rawtta. As to the exemption of the K.iw.ui, the Great Barrier, and Wailieke, the objection is a very small one. The land-holders on these islands will receive their forms, and we do not anticipate seeing Sir George Grey pleading this very small technicality against payment of the tax.

In instituting a new tax, the result is always more or less a doubtful element. Where there is merely a raising or lowering of a duty, or where it is che imposition of a tax upon an article the amount of whose consumption is well known, a calculation can be pretty exactly made, but in such a case as the present, where an assessment is made upon property hitherto untaxed, and in a mode hitherto untried, nothing more than a rough guess can be made at the amount which will be realised. The estimate was made by Mr. Ballance in something like the following way. The aunual valuation of highway and local boards was L' 2,343,249, and the municipalities £1,407,740 : total, .t'3,810,905. As the highway valuations are incomplete, the total was taken at £4,000,000. This, capitalised at 5 per cent., gives =t50,000,000 as the improved capital value of the real property of the colony. Mr. Balkiuce deducted for improvements 3 lGths, or X' 15,000,000, and, for the exemptions of L*SOU, another £15,000,000, leaving £50,000,000 of a taxable value. This is groping, if not in the dark, in a very dim twilight. It was estimated that the revenue would gain .£IOO,OOO, or, deducting £10,000, the estimated cost of valuations aud collections, a net gain of £00,000.

It will bo curious to observe how the different Provinces will fare. Where the settlers are generally holders of but small areas of land, as in tlie country to the north of Auckland, they will mostly escape through the mushes which permit the little iisli to get away, as having less than I'soo ; but, oil the East Coast aud in the Waikato there are a good many large holders, who will have to pay and look pleasant. Perhaps we may mention, as it is often forgotten, that large landholders here arc in a position so entirely different from those in the South, that they can hardly bo classed together. A ruaholdei in the SouMi could buy certain frontages which virtually gavo him a monopoly of an immense tract of country from which, without any labour, employing only three or four people, he could derive a large revenue, and on account of which he paid no taxation. This is tiic injustice which recent legislation has been seeking to remedy. In ilie Province of Auckland, oil the contrary, no huge landholder can make anything of Ins land, unless he spends enormous sums of 11101103' upon it. In this part of the colony there has never been any evil to speak of from holding land in enormous blocks.

The present tux is 111 ignite a different position from that imposed recently 111 Victoria. There the tax 011 land v\as the subject of battle between the contending parties ; here, both parties agreed that the incidence of taxation must be changed, aud that property must bear a greater share of the burdens of the country. Indeed, one of the accusations most frequently brought against the Ministry during last session was that they had nut gone far enough. Mr. ijallanee, in his Financial Statement, repudiated the charge that the Government contemplated a class tax. The Ministry held, he said, the belief that the late system favoured the escape from taxation of the greater portion of the wealth of the colony, and had implanted a strong sense of injustice in the minds of the wages class. There need be no hope that any turn of the political wheel will have the effect of shaking oil* this land tax. The lirst step has been taken in the taxation of landed property, not before it was time, and there is no chance of going back.