THE REVENUE FROM LAND.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13489, 10 January 1908, Page 4

THE REVENUE FROM LAND.

When we- published yesterday the statement made by the Premier at Invercargill announcing a. substantial increase in the revenue for the nine months ending December 31. and forecasting a record surplus running well into a million shelling for the financial year which will close at" the end of March, we suspected that, no inconsiderable part i'f til© inciease would bo due to I lie operation of the l.and and Income: .Assessment Act of last, *ossiou. That opinion :s continued by the figures circulated this morning from the. office of the Commissioner of Taxes. The total increase in the revenue for the three quarters for which the actual figures are available is £481.000, and the Premier anticipates that if the proportionate increase is maintained for the balance of the year, lie will be able to close his books on a larger surplus than has yet been achieved in th® history of Zealand. In face of the remissions m the Customs duties, involving an estimated net less of revenue of over a quarter of a million, Sir Joseph has every reason to be- satisfied with the state of his finances, but- it* is only wises to lemember that this year the -income: of the country lias benefited in a- way wliicli is not likely to recur from the new scale of the- graduated land tax. For the financial year 1905-6, the revenue from the. laud tax was only £385,756. f>uring the year ended March 31st last it rcfiu by over £60,000 to a total of £447,342, while this year, according to the figures supplied by the Commissioner of Taxes, it will reach £550,000, which represents au increase of nearly 25 per cent, oil: tho receipts of the previous twelve months. The country wa-s. -if course, prepared for this result:, but it is admittedly abnormal. The members of the Government itself do not look to the land tax as a permanently useful -source of revenue, for the wholo object of the new scale is to break up tins large properties which this year were caught in its lmish, and to promote subdivision which will reduce the. number of holdings liable to the penal' taxation nowapplied to tho.-e who acquire more land than is thought to b- good for them. The combined effect of subdivision enforced bv the graduated tax and of tlio resumption of other estates by the Government will speedily show i tee If in a. -sharp drop in tin.-, revenue from the land tax. and with this prospect in sight we should imagine that the Minister of Finance, buoyant as his general revenue is, will hesitate to reduce taxation by indirect methods.