OPEN COLUMN.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4427, 6 August 1901, Page 7

OPEN COLUMN.

EATING ON UNIMPEOVED VALUES, Mr J. Jamieson writes:—No ,one who has the least desire for the promotion of measures calculated to secure the greatest good to the people as a whole can help taking notice of the attitude of Captain Eussell and those who act in like manner with him re the above. He says that he is thoroughly convinced that rating on unimproved value is a will-of-the.wisp, etc., and that he does not understand what the unearned increment means. All such talk is so much dustthrowing, to attempt to hinder the progress of one of the most just measures ever passed or attempted to be passed by any Government in this or any country. This is a sweeping statement to make, but everyone who has given the question under review any degree of earnest con sideration will agree that it is true. It is too late in the day for dust throwing by making wild affirmations having a surface taint of truth, which are more misleading than a Whole falsehood. It is impossible in a short letter to deal with the unearned increment as it deserves, but briefly' put, it is tbe difference between the lesser and greater value of laud in town or country alike, and that such greater or increased value is produced by tbe people as a whole, and therefore should belong to the people as a whole. But I hear a voice of opposition from a small section of the people represented by such as Captain Eussell saying that it is unfair to those who have invested in laud years ago, and who have improved their lands, and thereby in creased its value, that they should be in any way interfered with. Such argument is but half the truth. ' In the first place, it is not such classes who will be so much interfered with. It is the purely speculative dog-m-the.manger class which is to be and must be affected. Is it not clear that this latter class rob the others, and reap rich harvests from the labour of the industrious classes for no. thing in return? It is to prevent such, and also to prevent the abnormal land value, together with the numerous evils associated therewith, that the proposed measure is introduced. Lot me also point out that even the improver of land individually does not create the value of his land, but the people as a whole. How much value would land, either in town, or country, attain if the population were to withdraw and go to another country? It would bo worthless, thus prbving that the increased value of property really beloues to the community and not to tha individual. I am neither a pessimist nor an optimist, .believing that the pathway to true progress is found at a point mid way between the extremes, and that such

a point is found in the principles contained in the sought reform of rating on unimproved values. Providing such reform is carried to its legitimate issue, the Government that establishes such a reform will merit the favour of all rightminded and truly progressive people. Such a reform will prove to he the only lever by which the unjust burden of indirect taxation on the necessaries of life can be removed.