LAND AND LABOUR.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6487, 6 April 1908, Page 5

LAND AND LABOUR.

(To the Editor of the "-N'-Z, ‘ Times"). Sir,—l hare rend the letters of your correspondents, “A Work-in; Man” and ‘Wairima,” on the above f’hject, and I am convinced that the former has put his finger on the real remedy for high rents when he soys, “tax land values.” This system of taxation is based upon absolute justice between man and man, for it would only take, for the benefit of the community, the enormous value which is given to land, by the presence and industry of the people, and which clearly belongs to them as a whole and rot.

to nnv privileged class. Vi hat is wanted is a tax high enough to com'■pel landowners to make use of their land and to prevent its being held merely for speculative purposes, with a view to fleecing thqo vorl;cra - The landlords ha-vc had a very good innings; they have fattened on the rankest kind of injustice; they have been allowed to ruthlessly rob flic people of their freedom and independence and of a. considerable portion of their earnings. In the best interests of the nation it is high time iliat honeV men effectually put a stop to this form of immorality, which keeps IHe wage-earners at the bare living point all their lives, no matter how long or how hard they work. Will any honest man say that such an iniquitous system was over intended by the CreatorF

Spoakjng of .Houses, “Wairima” says that “the only way to make them cheaper is to increase their number,’' and that this can he done by running cheap trams to suburbs. Well, this has boor, done, and it was thought by those who bad no knowledge of the economic question that cheap rents would obtain in the suburbs. But experience proves that this is not the case. The people are paying for the tramways in rates and taxes, and they are also paying for tins public improvement over again in enhanced rents. Every public improvement benefits the landlord by increasing the value of his land and enabling him to extort piore rent from his victims. Surely this is palpable to every thinking man. *‘*\\ airima” also says that the taxntirn of land values would simply enrich the Government at the expense ef the Landlord, and do no good to the tenant at all. This statement is absolutely false, in so far as he says it would rot benefit the “tenant. - ’ The Government would, by land value taxation, simply collect from the landlord, for tire benefit of the community, what ho never made himself, and what does npfc rightfully belong to him, namely, the unimproved value of land. This natural revenue would do tine “tenant” an infinite amount of good in this way: it would pay the cost of national, and local government, and thus remove the awful burden of Customs’ taxation, which now so heavily rests upon the backs of those who are least able to bear it. It would also give us cheap land, therefore more population, therefore a bettor home market for cur produce. Not only this, but it would reduce rents all round if the tax were made high enough to smash land monopoly. Make the tax sufficiently heavy, and it could not be transferred from landlord to tenant, as some people suppose. Tins is proved by Henry George, who, in his famous book, “Progress and Poverty,” says:—A tax on land values does not add to prices, and is thus paid directly by the. person on veil cm it falls: whereas all taxes upon things of unfixed quantity increase prices, and in the course of exchange are shifted from seller to buyer, increasing as they go. If we impose a tax upon buildings, the users of buildings oust finally pay it, for the erection of buildings will cease until building rente become high enough to pay the regular profits and the tax besides. . . . New the way taxes ram p . ices is by increasing the cost of production and checking supply. But land is not a thing of human production, and taxes upon rent cannot check supply. Therefore, though a tax on rent compels the landowners to pay more, it gives them no power to obtain more for the use of their land, as it in no way tends to reduce the supply of land. On the contrary, by compelling those who hold land on speculation to sell or let for What they can get, a tax on land values tends to increase the competition between owners, and thus reduce the price of land. And all the political economists, without exception, agree with him.—l am, etc.. It. W. DENTXTH. April 3rd, 1908.