TAX BURDENS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20093, 24 November 1930, Page 10

TAX BURDENS.

LANDHOLDERS' PLIGHT.

MANY SAID TO BE UNABLE TO PAY. fii reply to a question in the House of Representatix es during the session in regard to arrears in the payment of laud tax, the Acting-Prime Minister (Hon. E. A. Ransom) said there was a slight increase, but there was nothing abnormal

"At that time there might net have been much in arrears,'' said Mr YV. H. Nicholson, secretary of the Ccnteiburv Sheepowners' Union, when asked on Saturday whether he had any knowledge of such a development as had been hinted at in Parliament. "Present indications, however, are that unless a sharp recovery in prices takes place very soon, many farmers will be quite unable to meet their obligations to the Government with respect to iand tax.

"In a groat majority of cases the tax will be paid from capital, _ income being insufficient to meet this and other expenses of living. There is no question about it, costs will have to be reduced, or scores of men on the land will be forced to go out, especially where the utmost efforts have been made to reduce expenditure under present conditions, and the balance is still on the wrong side. "There is a minimum in labour costs below which the landholder cannot go. especially when it is hill country that is being farmed.''

Eventually, he said, the whole community must receive evidence through its own experience of the time of stress through which the landholder was passing. When the land tax could not be paid, it meant that the mortgagee was liable if there was a mortgage, and the Commissioner could sue him and obtain judgment. in a case where there was no mortgage the owner .would probably be forced to raise one to pay the tax Obviously, this could not last long. ''l could tell of eases which would break a person's heart," said Mr Nicholson. "Men who have been 011 properties for £0 years and more and have farmed them well, through no fault of their own are now threatened with eviction. Their downfall is being caused by the cost of everything required on the farm. Farmers who would have had no difficulty, a few years ago, in negotiating large sums of money have seeii their capital gradually eaten away in costs greatly exceeding their reduced returns. Many of them have been battling ever since the slumo of 1921.'

"I don't want to appear a Jeremiah." continued Mr Nicholson, "but anv man who looks at the problem squarely and faces the facts must realise that the country cannot carry on much longer under present conditions."

Official figures given in the last Year Book showed that the Dominion's assets were £30,000,000 less than its "abilities. and there is no reserve. •Nothing could better illustrate the need for retrenchment. There was a definite limit to the period during which a man could live on his capital resburaes.