THE GRADUATED LAND TAX

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2074, 27 February 1889, Page 3

THE GRADUATED LAND TAX

The Warsrapa " Star" says:— When we speak of a land tax, we don't refer to the land tax of Blr Barry Atkinson. We mean a graduated or progressive landtsx. We refer to the tax that will exempt tbe ordinary worker of the soil, but will come down like a steam hammer on the monopolist who olaim* the toil of what should be a proiporoua district, for a sheep walk or oattle run. We mee>n a tax that will rise as thousands of aores of arable land increase ; that wil travel over Marlboroogh and Nelaop and Canterbury and Otago and Wellington and Hawkes Bay like a divine liberator, smashing up huge runs of 50,000 and 100,000 aorea' and breaking gates and fences and letting families on the soil that Providence intended for their maintenance. We don't by any means deapite theep or oattle, or underrate the value of the great pastoral industry, but we maintain that where land is adapted for the plough and the spade, men, women and ohlldron are the oattle that It should be stocked with. A progressive land tax that will put an end to monopoly and abaenteeltm, will provide the Colonial Treasurer with plenty of revenue, and make New Zealand a land : —

Where a man ia a man if he's willing to toll, And the humblest may gather the fruits of the soil