Rangitikei Advocate. WEDNESDAY JUNE 19, 1907. SECOND EDITION. EDITORAL NOTES

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8842, 19 June 1907, Page 2

Rangitikei Advocate. WEDNESDAY JUNE 19, 1907. SECOND EDITION. EDITORAL NOTES

ONE of the Land E ) he brought forward next sossio according to Mr McNab’s Strte speech, “to provide for a her raduated tax on excess estate:;. to ard left quite in the dark : what is considered a heavy iv- what constitutes an excess c The public generally are no; .minted with the amount of the ; nfc graduated tax, and to those v s not in the habit te paying nnually the more .tenement to tax is 2d or 3d on the unimpro. • due conveys little definite oing. Most people, however, hr • clearer idea of what is meant income tax, and the fact that in ■ Nam an income tax of Is in th- o is considered very severe will prov ; a standard in the attempt to coo oo laud tax and income tax. It v bo generally admitted that over ies of years a laud owner does v well If ho obtains a return of 5 •• cent on tho unimproved value his land. This doss not rep t his whole

income, which con ■ also of interest on capital c led in stock and improvements. 1 profits of management. The rgumeut applies to town prop-si . whore rout is made Up partly of ■ orost on the value of the laud partly of interest and sinking fa ; m the capital invested in buib; In both country and town:-. ...Is what may be called ground r can fairly be taken at 5 per « on the unimproved value. Let ". i ion examine the case of the ov : who is [so

criminal in tho ep . f our present Ministry as to posse ad valued at £50,000 nnimprove . The income from this proper: • as wo have shown, may bo s r - own as £3500 per annum; tho I; :ax is Id and the graduated tax Id., eking a total of 3d in the £on £ ). The tax is therefore £416 id out of an income of £2500, or , .ho rate of 3s 4d in the £. Opinion- ,;y differ as to what constitnb-s ■ y taxation,

but it is clear th any groat increase in the pfoscir nduated tax will bo verging. peril -he near the point where taxaii \;comes confiscation. One stage. . .her on .the road taken by our ; nt so-callod Liberal Ministry, air . e shall find that no'one will h lowed to receive more tb.au a . tin fixed income, all receipts nb that amount being confiscated. ’ THE constantly rep; 1 assertion that no one who i. oosed to the Land Bill is capabi understanding it grows somewh monotonous from frequent repeti ■ - Mr McNab made use of it agar ho other day at Stratford, and w. so far as to state that chough th aid Bill had been more thrashed •.!, during the last six months thr. / any subject that had been before . u country in the last ten years, ventured to say that there was i,. rtford more ignorance about th ’ wernmeat’s proposals than the:: is on any subject. It did na nr to strike the Minister that 1 : credit was attached - to the ri . tion of a measure chat no ■' . aid understand except .its an It is true that when speaking . . vatford Mr McNab had somewhat.- . ro justification than usual for : . ■ statement, re cause, as he went 01: ;o explain, le has just brought [our an entirely lew sot of Bills to take the place )f,the original measure. The idea ippears to he that if cj. .h measures ire broughtin some f them may ie got through the Hon-,-. We are horefore threatened \\ a limitaion Bill, which will, ido for a leavy graduated tax ; excess esates; an Endowment • M ; aud last he Land Bill itself, ’ .ccd to the acre shadow of its ■ ■.■. c.er glory, nd dealing only with use 60 years’ jase- and the so-called concessions a lease - in-pe rpe tn i ty h-u >nts. There dll also be legislationdfl deal with to' pnrohase’of lauds for .settlement < id the evils of tin j, »t -v tom ’ i

of ballot. We are at present quite in the dark as to the proposals included in this long programme, hut wo may at least congratulate ourselves on the absence, of the £15,000 limit, and while waiting for details of the brand new measures some amusement will be obtainable from the Government journals which will have to follow the Ministerial lightning change artist, and declare that his new outfit is sure to far preferable to any of his former costumes.