TAXATION AND PRODUCTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17189, 17 June 1919, Page 9

TAXATION AND PRODUCTION.

Sir,—From the Herald's report of the meeting of county ratepayers at Glentield, I was pleased to notice that the county meiiiW for Birkenhead riding (Mr. Join Broaa.vjj purposes taking action to havo the incidence of county taxation altered, so that the rates will be struck on the unimpro- ed valuas of land. What incen- > tive is given to improve the land ? Under the present system of taxation every day's toil, every worker employed, every £1 spent in improvements, means the payment of an added and everlasting tribute to the local governing authority. H'ire i are three adjoining -farms. Mr. A. ha* 1 40 acres valred for rating purposes at £4 ! per acre.' '('he land haj never _ been I touched by the hand of mail; it is unI fenced; trie owner is an absentee. Mr. B. has a similar area, similarly untouched , and rated. Next door Mr. C. has over ' 100 acres. This land is not no favourably endowed by nature as its neighbour's, but it is valued for rating purposes at , £10 per acre! Why? Because Mr. 0. has i toiled and spent hard-earned mo..ey ind improved his place ! I mention this con- ! Crete case mere'.y to emphasise the fact . that the more labour we employ and the I more we spend the more we have to pay lin rates. But from a national point of '•view there is a more vital issu6 than that. | This year's great political shibboleth from , the two chief parties will be " Increased 1 Production !" Land Boards, the Farmers' Union, the banking institutions, Chambers .of Commerce, and public men, who are seeking ways and means to meet our new I and increased war responsibilities, all stress the point that those liabilities can he met only in one way, namely, by a very substantial increase in the produc-1 tion of the soil. But so far as one can see neither the Government nor the local bodies is doing much of a practical nature I to aid that productive development upon j which the future financial prosperity of this Dominion inevitably depends. The Government deliberately refused to permit the farmer to sell his produce in the open market. Labour advocates are fond of stressing the point that all a wage-earner I has to sell is his labour. Very well. All a potato-grower has to sell is the result of his labour. Bat can you imagine any Government saying to the wage-earning class that none of its members may sell its labour to lb? best advantage? And yet the Government does this to the producers with the utmost impunity. The ancient methods of the local bodies work in the same way. Let us begin again in Waitemata. If Mr. Broady succeed:! in bringing about the rating system he is now espousing, ho will aid very materially towards the realisation of this latest and most urgent gospel, ''Increased Production!" Richard J. Eames. Grefenbithe.