The Ministerial Policy. TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2006, 4 August 1892, Page 32

The Ministerial Policy. TO THE EDITOR.

. Sir,— -I see in the leader in your issue of tho7th mst a tirade agamst tho present Government and their system of taxation— that is, their land and income tax scheme. I see you also credit tho small farmers and the labour voters with having riveted the fetters on their wrists of a policy baa in principle. Well, after reading the same and giving it due consideration, and having at tho same time read that the Oppositionists applauded the remarks of Mr M'Lean, I now think the Ministerial policy is the right system. Mr M'Lean's remarks were to the effect that he did not care two straws whether the Land and Income Tax Bill passed or not so long as the correct principles embodied in it were grafted on to the laws of this colony. His idea of the correct principles was that all land should be taxed without exemption, and there should be no tax on improvements. Mr Sandford's remarks were, on the contrary, ap plauded by the Ministerialists. His remarks were to the effect that he pinned his faith to tho Ministerial measures which recognise that tho small farmers pay sufficient through the customs I already. Sir, the tirades against the present Government are not.fair, and the newspapers that contain them cause a grave suspicion that they are tho mouthpieces of the money-lenders and squatters, who have ruled the colony so long and so badly, and who by their extravagance have brought Now Zealand to the verge of ruin. We are told with tireless reiteration that taxation on land is the weapon with which destruction will bo wrought upon capital and monetary interests generally, lhe authors of these evil prophecies have done their best to alarm capital by gross misrepresontaI{ ons ™- • e . y studiously ignore the fact that under the Ministerial measures of last session very great relict has been given to land in hona fide cultivation, and that a considerable proportion of the taxation which is levied upon unrcproductivo capital under the property tax will in future bo assessed upon income, and that unreproductivo capital will go entirely free. The intensity of tho attacks of the authors of these evil prophecies, although they carefully conceal the fact, and continually place false issues before the public, there can be no doubt at'all arises from their avowed determination to check the further acquisition of large estates, and to require from those already acquired a more reasonable contribution to the revenue. Sir, let any man of intellieonco, however conservative in his views, dispassionately consider the land question as it presents itself in this colony, and he must admit that it is indeed time to take some decisive action. Notwithstanding the well-known evils created in almost all countries, both in ancient and modern times, by large estates, the rulers of this colony have either been so ignorant of those evils or so utterly regardless «f their duty as to permit the formation of great estates in New Zealand. If the evil policy is permitted by which the lands of this colony become the monopoly of a few at the rate mentioned by the Minister for Lands at Lawrence, we shall soon bo a poor nation indeed. The two returns supplied to him by the Lauds department that he spoke from show the necessity there is for a quick alteration in the law. One return was in connection with land sold in Canterbury, and shows during the year prior to his taking oince that in two months 56 sections comprising 20,219 acres were offered for sale and were disposed of to 31 persons, and in a few months this same land was transferred down to nine persons or companies, and all these companies were already holding large areas. The other return related to the provincial district of Wellington, and showed that the officers had gone over 10 settlements, embracing 2(53 selectors, and that they found that 44 only out of 263 were residing on the land ; 166" had not resided on tho land at all, and 33 could not be accounted for. During the time 92 transfers had been mado, 19 had two selections, and seven had three selections, contrary to law ; 41 had not complied with act, 15 had made no improvement at all— making 56 or one in five, who had failed to comply with the law, and the Wellington Land Board had the front to say that settlement was satisfactory. Sir, if all had been done in the interests of settlement that should have been done, there would have been no call for Mr Bastings to express how it grieved him to meet young men, the flower of the country, in Launceston, Sydney, and Victoria ; nor for the pertinent remarks of Mr E. B. Cargill at the same time, who condemned the system and folly that had allowed blocks of land to be held the size of I an English county, most of it having practically passed into the hands of absentee holders and large companies. They were referring to the land the Otago Central railway is to pass through. That the rulers of this colony in the past have either been utterly regardless of their duty or ignorant of the evils attending the formation of great estates on such an enormous scale as now exists in this colony there can be no doubt, as will be seen from the following particulars of large estates, drawn from returns laid before Parliament. From these returns we learn that 34b" private owners and 16 banks and companies own 7,348,713 acres, largely of the best freehold lands of the colony, of the unimproved value of L15,153,t>30. Amongst these there are 24 landholders, the unimproved value of whose estates run from LIOO.OOO to L 1,000,000. Asa contrast to these enormous freeholds held by a mere handful of people, we find that 16,078 families, or say 80,000 persons, live on small farms amounting to an area of 300,000 acres, or about 18 acres per family. If we contrast this average of 18 acres held by each working family with the average of 20,000 by each of the 362 owners as above cited, we shall find one of the causes of tho non-increase of our population. If we compare tho customs duties paid by those two classes of landowners, we find that the 80,000 persons pay annually L 193,000. If we take the 362 owners of the 7,348,713 acres, and estimate their workmen at 38,000 persons, we shall have the sum of L 91.675 paid annually as customs duties by the latter. Here we find the small farms pay 12s Id per acre, whilst tho large estates would pay 3d per acre. From the above it will be seen as settlement proceeds and large estates diminish the natural sequence will be that the Treasury will be in receipt of more money contributed through the customs by the settlers than the owners of large estates could afford or be expected to pay ; and were the tariff to remain as it is, and the large estates become a thing of the past, there would be no need for the putting on of a special tax on the land whatever, nur would there be the same chance for those who favour land nationalisation having their ideas grafted on to the laws of this colony as now exibts, for the increased numbers of owners would be a strong check on those so inclined, or at any rate it would retard legislation that way until such principles were better understood. — I am, &c., James Douglas, Farmer. Purakanui, July 26.

i Intelligence has been received from Melbourne of the death of ex-Inspecfcor Bullen at Yarra Bend Asylum, Victoria, on the 16ch July. He joined the Otago police force in 1861 under Commissioner Branigan. A letter-carrier in the Christchurch Post Office was arrested on Monday on a charge of stealing letters and their contents. When arrested some destroyed postal notes were found in his possession.