THE LAND AND INCOME TAX.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9270, 4 August 1893, Page 5

THE LAND AND INCOME TAX.

[by telegraph.— special correspondent.]

Wellington', Thursday. The Commissioner of Taxes in his report says:—"lt is desirable to draw attention to the fact that what may be deemed a small result of the income tax for this colony is duo in part to the high exemption of £300, and largely to all incomes from the use or product of land derived by the owner or occupier. This includes rent and all interest from registered mortgages of land. Being exempt from income tax, land and mortgages and income therefrom contribute to the land tax alone. The allowance of an exemption of £300 to each partner in a firm has caused a serious decrease in the income-tax revenue, the effect being to diminish the tax paid by some firms by £30, and more in certain cases. The attached table gives a. classification of land and income taxpayers, by occupation or designation, and of companies, according to the business they carry on. The results are contrasted with those of the last assessment for property tax in ISSS, which wore published in 1SS!). Under both systems, the largest contributions were by graziers, sheep farmers, dairymen, &c. ; that is, by owners of country lands, (lie total for land and income tax being £89,1541, and for properly tax, £81,544. The number of the property tax payers was 8011, the number of land tax payers is 4760, who are assessed for ordinary land tax. In considering those anil other results, it should be remembered that some who pay graduated tax do not pay land tax, but it may bo taken to be the rule that the land taxpayers include those who pay the graduated tax, and the number of the latter are therefore omitted in these comparisons. Further, some of those who pay land tax also pay income tax. Land companies (15) were assessed for property tax £12,049; and land companies (19) were assessed for land tax £10,579, and graduated tax £15,232, which with income tax, £396, make up £32,207, which shows an increase of £20,158 in the present as compared with the late system. Loan companies contribute £30,923 for land anil income tax, as against £38,147 property tax; life insurance companies, £11,790, as against £11,719; lira and marine insurance companies, £8279, as against £6652 ; banks pay £10,184, as against £14,244; mercantile companies, £10,302, as against £9384; manufacturing companies, £7549, as against £3784; manufacturing and mercantile, £5022, as sgainst £5807 ; coal mining, £1425, as against £1498 ; gold mining (23), £2735, as 'against (113) £2545; building societies pay £1987, and were not assessed for property tax : church property corporations and trusts, £2730, as against £2040.

The president of Iho British Beekeepers' Association (Baroness Burdett-Coutts) has written and published a letter calling attention to the humble yet profitable industry of bee-culture. Amongst other things she says-.— "Our rural population might very advantageously engage to a much larger extent than they do at present. The British Beekeepers' Association, of which 1 am president, was formed many years ago, to promote tho more intelligent management of tho honey bee, and to call the attention of the peasantry to the fact that for a small amount of care and attention this industrious littlo creature would perhaps pay their rent, and often give an oven greater direct return for the small amount of thought and trouble bestowed upon it, in addition to the indirect boon it oonters by assisting the process of fertilisation, and so materially increasing tho crop of fruits, especially of raspberries, currants, and bush fruits generally. I must say at once that the efforts of tho association have met with very considerable success. It has established affiliated associations all over tho country, has formulated a general plan of instruction in apiculture, has sent out expert demonstrators and lecturers, issued a largo amount of useful literature, and facilitated the sale of honey produced. The association has also held examinations, and by its efforts bee-keeping has been officially recognised as a subject of technical education which may bo taught in schools, and towards which the county councils in many districts are now making grants of money. But there are still large areas whore bee-keeping is nob pursued, and a great source of wealth to tho cottagers is thereby ignored and lost. There are sixty-one county councils in England and Wales having technical instruction committees ; but there are in tho counties only twenty-six affiliated branches of this association. Among our objects we are striving to ensure that wherever there is a technical instruction committee, there also shall there bo a county or district beekeepers' association, and we have also set before ourselves an ideal, perfectly attainable, of raising a ton of honey and a one pound subscription in every country parish. That ideal, however, cannot be immediately attained, and the need for funds to continue and to carry into new fields this most useful and unpretentious little work is most urgent. I appeal especially for help to all those living amid rural surroundings, and ask them to send some small subscription to the association, at 17, King William-street, Strand. At the same time I would also point out to them how, by arousing the enterprise and wisely directing the efforts of their poorer neighbours, they may perform a most useful service, in which the association will most gladly give them any assistance in its power."