CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9371, 22 May 1889, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE WEIGHT OF THE PROPERTY TAX. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —The advocate-? of the property tax should read the plain statement of faces reported of the meeting last week at Morrinsville of the Board of Reviewers :—l. Objection, valuation of £500 on Mr. Firth's 120 acres at Matamata Hot Springs. The Government valuator (Mr. Hunt) said the land was certainly very poor, and seeing the hot springs were not being improved he thought the valuation might be reduced by one-half. Valuation reduced to £250. 2. Objection, 1.740 acres near Morrinaville, valued at £2 per acre. Mr. Bell, of Wairoa, the owner, said he would be prepared to take 303 per acre for it." Mr. Hunt said "he thought a very fair valuation had been put upon the land, as a considerable quantity of it had been improved. Valuation reduced to £2871- In the case of objections from three small settlers near Te Aroha, the valuation was sustained. We suppose they had been guilty of improving their land, and, unlike Mr. Bell, they could not offer to sell it and be turned out of their homes in the beginning of winter. By their property tax the Government makes the improvement of land penal. By their hostile railway administration they aim to make the occupation of land unprofitable, and by an almost prohibitive Customs tariff upon absolute neces- ' saries for the improvement of land as well as the development of kindred industries to utilise rural products, they seriously impede the progress of settlement and the wealthproducing powers of the colony generally. All land taxation should be local Government revenue, and with increased powers, freedom, and revenues there would be also increased responsibilities, but to successful local Government it is absolutely essential that the taxpayers should have a prompt and effective control over the tax spenders. There is a simple and economical mode of adjusting valuations more consistent with justice than Henry George's theory of crushing out individuality and love of " home," and managing everything by government officials and under government departments, and calling it " land nationalisation." I prefer "land utilisation," for seeing the evils connected with land tenure in the United Kingdom, my thoughts were directed to how these might be remedied. If o,dopted at home it would be a peaceful and beneficent revolution, iind would grapple successfully with one great social cause of poverty and crime. Ib is to be feared, however, that the short-sighted selfishness of vested interests will prevent timely remedial measures, till the deepening lines which separate the hard lot of ever-increasing povertyfroman ever-increasing affluence precipitate a social cataclasm. In this fairyoung country such evils may be averted, but not I fear by the present phase of the Continuous Ministry under Sir 11. Atkinson, and still less under that infinitely more objectionable form of it, the Vogel-Stout combination.—l am, &c., War. Arciid. Murray. Mount Pleasant, Piako, May 20, 1889.