TAX THE LAND

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8653, 11 February 1914, Page 6

TAX THE LAND

A correspondent signing himself “Index” writes from Nelson to the “Lyttelton Times” conveying some sound advice to working people. The letter is based upon the statement appearing in the report of the Empire Trade Commission that the proportion jf the populations of Australia and New Zealand engaged in agricultural and pastoral pursuits is smaller thap in the United States and many parts of Europe, and the town population is excessive. “Index” sees.in this proof of land monopoly, and urges the workers to take their attention from “the tomfoolery of strikes” and agitate for the taxation of land in order to bring it into occupation. Xlw “Lyttelton Times” supports the contention, holding (as we do) that the land question is of more consequence to the workers than it is to any other section of the community, although it is of great importance to every man, woman, and child in the country. .The “Reformers,” sayg our contemporary, frankly legislate for the small minority who are already on the land and the few hundreds who have some hope of getting there. “They have talked of providing twenty-five acre blocks of poor kauri land for people who want to engage in fruit-growing in the Ear North, but even this uninviting scheme seems to have been abandoned since they discovered there still were one or two million acres of native land out of the hands of the speculators. . . . But where the assistance of the workers is particularly needed at the present time is in insisting upon the imposition of such a graduated tax as would compel the owners of large estates to part with their superfluous acres. At present the tax is so nicely adjusted that it enables the owners to unload at their leisure without any fear that the inflated prices of land will be affected by the impost. The “Reformers,” ignoring the law of supply and demand which they would apply to any other commodity, actually quote these high prices as evidence of the country’s prosperity, while really they are nothing more than proof of the existence of monopoly and of other evil conditions which inflict an intolerable burden upon the small farmer and gravely retard the development of the country. It is cheap land, not dear land, that New Zealand requires just now, and until it gets it the towns will remain over-crowded and the rural districts only sparsely populated. The crying need of the Dominion is close settlement, but close settlement cannot proceed in the face of exorbitant nrices.”