MR. DUTHIE ON THE LAND TAX.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1685, 15 June 1904, Page 57

MR. DUTHIE ON THE LAND TAX.

(To the Editor “New Zealand Mail/’) Sir,— Evidently from the reports published, I failed, when recently speaking, to make my contention and position clear over the graduated land tax. I then demurred to the recent increase M this tax, as an instance of the frequent insidious addition to taxation, for which with an excess revenue there was no present necessity or any corresponding remission. At the same time, I sought to show that the graduated principle was probably the .most effective yet suggested, both to prevent accumulation and to induce distribution of land when already hem in unduly large estates, and I expressed approval, keeping in view that our raw produce has mainly to be sold in competition in the markets of the world, and so that the prosperity of the settler and colony largely depends upon land being held in such areas as will enable cultivation by the most modern and economical appliances. In periods of unrest, the mainstay of society will probably be found in the wides't economical distribution of land ownership, and this throughout from the workman's garden plot to the largest necessary sheeprun. —I am, etc., JNO. DOTH lE.