TAXING THE LAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3003, 4 October 1911, Page 53

TAXING THE LAND.

?i TO BURST UP LARGE ESTATES. PRESENT GRADUATED TAX > - AN IMPROVED 0 SYSTEM PROPOSED. (Frokc- Our Own Correspondent.)' """.'"' September 29. The present graduated land tax system as a means of preventing the aggregating of land is described by the Horn J. Anstey as erratic, ineffective, .and unjust. He has endeavoured to devise & system of graduation impaired by none of these defects, and his conclusions and proposals were explained by him in-the Legislative Council this afternoon. Mr I Anstey said that some method must be devised* to make the large, private estates available for. closer settlement. The operations under the Land for Settle-ments-Act had produced • scarcely a single failure, but unfortunately the Government had been compelled by the high price of land to decrease its operations under the act. Another means towards the settlement of the land was to provide facilities for private individuals to cut up their land and dispose of it on a leasehold basis, which would relieve them of the payment of the graduated land tax. That result- could not be obtained under the present laws. He advocated amending the Land Settlement Finance Act by embodying the principles of the New South Wales Closer Settlement Promotion Ast, which "allows a man to cut up his property into blocks, and, provided three or four buyers are found,, the Government will advance 95 per cent, of the purchase money to the purchaser, so that the farmer buying under these terms is required to find only 5 per cent, of the purchase money and to pay the balance in 38 years at 4 per cent. "One great bar stands in the way of all these •systems," said MaAnsteyi " and-it is that the prices demanded for these private estates are far too high and in excess of the productive value of the land. Even if the Government was prepared to buy it could not do so at a fair price. There are large estates occupied by absentees, but the land tax has not been proved a successful means of bursting up these estates for the admission of the hundreds of settlers who wish to get on to them. The present graduated land tax system is not effective, because it -is erratic and unjust.. The system runs on a plane for some distance, then suddenly it jumps up, then it proceeds along, another plane for a distance,, and then makes another and longer jump. The result is a scramble among landowners to reduce their properties to -the lower points and stop there." The effect of the system which he commended to the Government was, Mr Anstey explained, the removal of the anomalies of the present system, and the essential difference between the two systems w.ns that under his proposal each grade wouldpay its own rate. As .at present j. property valued up to £SOOO would be exempt from the graduated land tax. On estates valued to a rate- of would be paid on £IO,OOO. The second £IO,OOO wotild be subject to a rate of Id, and the third £IO,OOO to a rate of From that point the. tax would be increased by -gd for every additional £SOOO. For instance, the graduated tax in addition to the ordinary tax on an estate valued at £50,000 would be id on £IO,OOO, Id on £IO,OOO, on £IO,OOO, 2d on £SOOO, 2£d on £SOOO, -and 3d on £SOOO-a total of £2Bl ss, which, with the ordinary tax, was equivalent to nearly 1 per cent., as compared with £312 10s under the present system. The proposed scale gradually rose above the present scale from £65,000, below which .no increase was suggested, but the anomalies of the present system were avoided. , The following table shows the amount of the graduated taxation under the two systems at various stages and the approximate rate per cent, of total taxation: —

Mr Anstey explained that the imposition of a tax'of 4i per cent, was equivalent to confiscation, and the effect of his system would be that all estates of a value above- £150,000 "-ould have to be sold, and the pressure on smaller estates would be so great that a large number of them would have to be disposed of. As the population, increased. th§ limit of

confiscation could be lowered. Some such system of compelling large landholders to dispose of their estates must be incorporated in any land settlement scheme that was to deal effectively with private estates. In all fairness, such a scheme of taxation must be accompanied by such a system as he had suggested that would allow the large land-owners a fair way of getting out of their property. He strongly advocated a bolder policy in regard to the settlement of the la.rge estates.

i 9* d -+3 a <D Eh 73 1 A a o S !> PhH CUH .Hpn £ 50,0(X) £ 281 5 0 £ 312 10 0 1 80,000 865 0 0 800 0 0 lg 105,000 1656 5 0 1378 2 6 2 135,000 2937 10 0 2278 2 6 2-5 156.000 4000 0 0 5003 2 6 5 180,000 5562 10 0 4050 0 0 3a 200.000 7000 0 0 5000 0 0 205.000 7385 8 4 5125 0 0 4 225,000 9131 4 0 5625 0 0