PROGRESSIVE LAND TAX.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 10240, 1 September 1909, Page 4

PROGRESSIVE LAND TAX.

TO BREAK UP LANDOCRACY

By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.]

(Per Press Association.)

Received September 1, at 8.55 a.in Melbourne, September 1,

In -the Assembly, the Treasurer introduced land taxation proposals to provide for levying a tax of a halfpenny in the nound oil estates whose unimproved talue ran from £SOO to £2500; three farthings on those between and £5000; one penny between £oOUU and £IO,OOO, a proportionate increase to 2d in the pound where the value was up to. £50,000, and 3d on estates above £BO,OOO. . . The Treasurer, in moving the second reading, said that the main objects ot the Bill were, firstly, an extension of agricultural settlement; secondly, to meet an expected shortage of Customs returns from the Commonwealth, it was proposed to break up the large estates by steady decrease. The reason for the exemption up to £soo' was a de.sire to see closer settlement. At present there were 405 estates in Victoria, each of a capital value of oyer £2ooo, and 45 men are holding 1,296,000 acres of a of £7,153,000. Owing to the scarcity of land for settlement the Government hiis found a difficulty in keeping the people. During the past 27 years they, liad lost over 12,000 by .excess of emigration over immigration. ~ It was expected that the tax would yield £318,000 annually, including the present land tax. It was proposed to earmark £50,000 annually for the reduction of railway freights and the construction of country railways. Mr Prendergast indicated that tlie Labor Party would support the tax. Adelaide, September 1. The Premier moved progressive land tax resolutions similar to those introduced last year.