THE LAND BILL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8986, 17 September 1892, Page 3

THE LAND BILL.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,— On perusing your remarks this moraing on the perpeuial lease under the Land Bill I perceive you think the nationalises — because of there being: no provision for revaluation—have given up their claim to the unearned increment. They have done no such thing, for, under the land tax they are going to tax the unearned increment, and under the Land Bill, they are nationalising the land; and if the Land Bill passes, this country will be as surely conquered by the .Labour party as England was by the Normans. It you will consider for a moment that, if a piece of land of 500 acres, say 20 years hence, should be worth as you think £50 per acre (improbable as such a value may be) and be taxed under the Land Act at Id in the £, the tax the leaseholder would have to pay would be. about £100, if the tax were 2d'iu the £ then he would have to pay £200, and so on each year in addition to his original rent. You can thus see plainly that a means is provided for getting at the unearned increment with a vengeance ; and you can trust the Labour party in the towns to impose the highest rate possible. The matter of the unearned increment was brought under Sir George Grey's notice the other day, and he declared to an interviewer that the unearned increment could be got at. It appears to me that if there was a re-valu-ation then the perpetual leaseholders would be paying for the unearned increment twice over— through the increased rent, »nd once through taxes on increased value of land. I have looked carefully through theßill, and have no hesitation in pronouncing it a monstrosity which will produce much needless suffering to this generation and their children. No, sir, the perpetual lease is not so rosy as it looks, for the perpetual leaseholder will be a perpetual slave,' liable for a trifling arrear of rent or non-payment of rates to be evicted and dispossessed, after, it may be, 20, 30, or more years' occupation, with a very dim shadow of compensation, and his position will then be no better than that ct an Irish evicted tenant. It will make no difference whether the landlord be my Lord Duke or my Lord the State, for the bailiff and policeman would hunt him ouc all the same (for there is provision for all this in. the Liberal Bill), and they would be backed by the ignorant and howling mob who are now howling at Sir George Grey for using his far-sighted intelligence and influence in trying to prevent the colonists becoming slaves. 1 And whose is the land after all, and for whom

are we preserving it ? Is it for the submerged tenth of England or the hordes of foreigners of every nationality who are every day being poured upon our. shores? Fellow-colonists, behold the future population for whom you are to toil, and who is to possess the unearned increment of the land, the freehold of which is now denied you by the great Liberal parly, and reflect what is your duty to yourselves and children. Simply this, Crush Out that Land Bill. [advertisement .