BILLS IN COMMITTEE

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2211, 25 July 1914, Page 9

BILLS IN COMMITTEE

GRADUATED LAND TAX PROGRESS OF SETTLEMENT The House went into Committee on •sis Bills at 2.46 p.m. The Land Tax and Income Tax Bill was first on the list. ' Mr. G. "W. Kussell asked the Minister of Finance whether he regarded the present, graduated land tax as the ultimate tax to bo imposed, or whether the Government proposed to adopt any modification of tne tax. Sir Walter Buchanan reminded Mr. Russell of the statement in the Governor's Speech in the session 1912, which showed that the policy of the honourable gentleman's own leader was virtually tho ! same as that of this Government. - ~ The Hon. J. Allen said that nothing was ultimate in this world that he know of, and certainly not the graduated land ' tax. Circumstances mignt arise in the development of this country which might demand an increase in the tax. He would make no prophecy about what would happen. Lands Bolng Settled. The Rt. Hon. W. l'V Massey said the Government desired to promote sottle- , ment and subdivision of tho larger estates, and if it became necessary to increaso tho graduated tax for this purpose, Parliament would be asked to do it. -Ho had had a return prepared in tho last few days showing tho subdivision which had taken place during tho last two years, and he thought that when members saw it they would bo surprised. It showed that subdivision had been going on for the last two years at the rate of nearly a million 1 acres a year. . Mr. Isitt: Is it family subdivision? Mr. Massey: You can't discriminate

between family sobdivision and other subdivision. I am advised that very iittjo of the subdivision is family subdivision. The return, he said, bore out the. statement ho had made some two years ago that very soon there would not bo a single large estate suitable for agricultural purposes left 1 intact in this country. Under the heading of subdivision by freeholds tho numbe.r of privatcly-pwncd original holdings cut up in tho period of two and . a quarter years from: March 31, 1912, was '2259, and the number of subdivisions disposed of was sab' 9, the aren in acres' being 844,664. Under the Land Settlement Finance Act 80 original holdings were- cut up into 143 subdivisions, tho area being 18,831 acres. "Under the Land for Settlement Act the number of original holdings subdivided was 39, tho number of subdivisions 484, and the area 262,183 acres, lids made the total number of orighial holdings affected 2916; the number'of subdivisions 6196, and the area 1,125,678. The area of ordinary Crown lands opened for selection' in the same period was 710,633 acres. Of tho Native lands vested in Maori Land Boards 83,000 acres had bepn subdivided. Ten estates had been acquired under the Land for Settlement Act, of an area 0f'23,652 acres. Tho total area subdivided under all bends was acres. In reply to Mr. Wilford ho said that he believed that in. 19 cases out of 20 subdivision meant settlement. • . Mr. Forbes advocated an increase in tho'graduated land tax. Mr. T. M. Wilford asked whether as the rosult of. the legislation of this Government settlers were being placed on the land. , Rapid Increase. The Right Hon.' AV. F. Massey, referring again to 'the return, said that it set out also the number of subdivisions in the' four half-yearly periods from March 31,. 1912. In the first period 369 holdings-were cut up into 667 subdivisions,.-' In the next six months after the increase of the graduated land tax, 468 holdings were subdivided into 1324 smaller areas'. In the next six months 426 original areas wore cut up ito 1009 subdivisions, and iu the last six months of the period ! ending March 31, 1914, 865 original holdings were'cut up into 2190 subdivisions. Ho would;suggest that the figures he had ' quoted showed that subdivision was going on far more rapidly than many of the members of the House were aware. Unfair in Incidence? Mr. G. V. Pearce drew the attention or the j Government te the fact that graduated land tax was imposed on holdings of £5000, and in Taranaki much of the land was valued at , £so per acre, •'' unimproved value. This , meant that a man with a 100-acre farm'was charged graduated land tax, even; if he had a mortgage of £4000 against it. This was not fair and many complaints wore being made about it in his district. He understood that the object of the graduated land tax wae te break up large estates, but surely a 100-aore farm was small enough. Mr. H. G. EH said the graduated land tax tin a £5000 "property would ,be only. 255. a,year, which should do no serious damage. , - : Mr. Pearce pointed out that in addition to this a farmer on .a £5000 farm in Taranaki would be required,to pay some £20 ordinary' land tax and about £25 in local, rotes. ■'. , Sir Walter Buchanan said tho mem'ber for Christchurch North had seemed to make light of the tax' of 255. on a small dairy farmer. But by what' right. did tho State domand even 255. from a farmer, in such "a position? It was 'really , 'an• unfair impost, of which the fsinner should be relieved. -He,did not suggest..that there should be no i'ateditax',' but -there : should be some ■fairor'system of imposing it.- It wiia not equitable that there should be no distinction between the man who.owned his farm outright and the man who had to go on the money market to get a home for himself. He held also that the system of valuation in vogue in. New Zealand was farcical and unbusinesslike. ; The discussion continued on the dfr; eirability.of cutting up lands near the railways and main roads. ' Working of the Law. 'The Right, Hon. W. F. Massey said the Act put on tho Statute Book last year, was working out very much better than even, he bad expected it would. AVTien the Land Purchase Board called his attention to the fact that a certain block ought to bo acquired for. subdivision, the next step was to interview the owner of tho land and tell him .the land was wanted for closer settlement. Tljen the owner was given the option of subdividing- the land himself, or of selling tho land at a reasoflable price to the Government, of having' it compulEqrily taken -under the Act of last year, or of handing it over to the Government for subdivision. " He had found that there was a prejudice ion tho part of landowners against, handing over to the Government fof subdivision, on the ground that this process was expensive, but the Act had had,a very marked effect in inducing owners to partition their own land. .Referring te tho complaint that the graduated tax was a hardship on small dairy he indicated that ho would be prepared to consider a proposal to increaso the exemption under the tax to relieve such people as small dairy farmers. '. ■Mr. H. Atmoro spoke on Ms favourite topic—:the alleged unwillingness of the Government to make any serious endeavour to.break up the big estates in Hawke's Bay and elsewhere held by the big landowners, who, Mr. Atmoro alleged, were keeping the present Government in office. v Inoldence of Graduated Tax. Sir Joseph Ward asked the Ministei of Finance whether he would tell the House the -result of the alteration made in the imposition in tho graduated land tax by the alteration of grades. Hβ believed that the result of the change was that the men with properties of smaller value, from, say, ,±;5000 to £15,000, we're paying more. It was therefore, lie contended, quite misleading to quote a total increaso in . the graduated land tax to arrive at the effeot of the now method of levying the tax... ' . . ■ The Hon.' J. Allen said that a year ago the Department had prepared a table showing how much would have to bo paid,on properties of different values, and these tables were available to everybody, (t was not correct to say generally that there wero increases in the amount of tax charged en properties betweon £5000 and £15,000, although there were, individual instances of men who would pay moro than they had paid formerly. The general effect of the new system, however, had been to reduce .taxation slightly on theso smaller estates. Under the old,system there were big "steps" and a man, because of his property being increased a few pounds in valae, suddenly found his taxation disproportionately increne•ed because his property was in anothoj grade. The present Government had thought _ this system inequitablo and had introduced a system by which the increases in taxation wero regular and gradual, in accordance with increases in lalue of property. j The Mortgage Tax. Sir J. G. Ward asked tho Minister whether tho Government proposed. to repeal the mortgage tax. This tax had been attacked regularly in tlio (lays of tho late Government by the honourable members who worn now in l.lic Ministry, tin chided tho Government for their failure to repeal this tax. The Hon. J. Allen said that it was not impossible that the Government would remove tho mortgage tax, but he could not F.es his way to do it this session. It would mean the readjust*

mcnt of the wholo of the taxation, and as thore were other arid more important matters to be dealt with he aid not propose to 'consider tlio matter tliis year. - ; ■.-'*. x Mr. 6. Forbes urged tliat extra taxa. tion ought to be imposed on absentee owners who, did not live on their holdings.. , . The first clause of the Bill was passed at 9.3 p.m., and the last clause at 9.13 p.m. THE FRUIT INDUSTRY. The Fruit Preserving Industry Amendment Bill (the Right Hon. W. F. Mas. sey) was committed. An amendment was inserted, on the motion of the Minister, to make.it possible for advances to be made not only forth© establishment of cold storeß or fruitrcanning or other works, but for the extension, of stores or works already established. ' Mr. H. M. Campbell suggested an amendment to increase the amount the Minister should be empowered to lend in any one year from £25,000 to £50,000. Ho was afrlid that with the lower limit the Minister might find himself hampered by lack of funds. The Right Hon. W. F. Massey said he would have no objeotion to increasing the amount to. bo advanced, and wouuld take steps to introduce the necessary amendment by Governor's Message if lie thought the amount would be needed before the end of the financial year. If it should be. discovered , that more money was ■ re4uired, he would come along with an. amendment next' session. In reply to Mr. Harris he said that in view of the growing importance of the export trade in fruit something more would have to be done in the matter of grading than had been done hitherto. The Government would do all it could to help the industry along. Only that day he had been negotiating for the resumption of 7000 acres of Grown land on Earnscleugh Flat in Central Otago. If the deal "came off" ho hoped to be able to place 150 fruitgrowers on the land. Part of the land would have to be irrigated, but he thought there wae a possibility of discovering artesian water. Boring operations would bo conducted with this object. ... ■ . . The Bill passed through Committee with amendments. , : LOCAL ELECTIONS. SECRECY OF THE BALLOT. The Local Elections and Polle Amendment Bill (the Hon. F. M. B. Fisher) was committed. ■ Mr. L. M. Isitt contended that the seorecy of the ballot was .not-main-tained by the proposed method of conducting the elections. That particularly applied to the smaller polling booths, where in the count of the votes a returning officer could discover how every voter had voted. ' Dr. A. K. Newman brought under the notice of the Minister a system that had been found most useful m Belgium. There, in to keep the ballot secret, the. papers from a number of' the small booths were mixed,together until there were about 600 before' they were Counted. This had worked very successfully. '■•.." _ The Hon. F. M. B. Fishor said that it was quite true that at email booths .there was danger of the ballot not being quite secret, but he maintained that the danger was infinitely greater under the old system. The system proposed by Dr. Newman seemed to be the only one that would ensure absolute secrecy ot the ballot, and it was under consideration at present. • ■ ■Mr. J M'Combs asked the Minister, wnetner he could make provision to do away with the necessity for the official recount at municipal elections where the vote , 'was decisive.' '•■' :;"'■■ The Hon. F. M. B. Fisher was not willing to adopt the suggestion. The question was: When was a Vote decisive? He mentioned a case in Wellington where the majority was given as 101, and then the returning officer, found that a mistake of 100 votes had been inade, and reduced the majority to 1. That was an example of the practical .value of the official recount. ' Method of Voting Changed. Mr. O. E. Statham, >in accordance with notice, moved 1 to'add' an -~ additional clause to Section 24 of tlio principal Act, and provide that the voter, instpad of placing a cross opposite the candidate lie wished.to vote for, should strike out the names of candidates, ho did not wish to vote for.. . Dr. Newman and Mr. J. M'Combs opposed the recommendation. The Hon. F.' M: B. Fisher supported I the additional clause. It kept the voting in harmony, with the genoral election practice. ... . ' Mr. J. H. Bradney thought that the "cross" system had beea responsible for a great deal of informal voting. To revert to the old system of striking out the names of candidates for whom an elector did not wish to vote would be appreciated by the voters. The added to the Bill,' and the Bill passed through Committee with* the amendment. HARBOURS BILL. NO PAYMENT OF MEMBERS. The Harbours Amendment Bill (the Hon. F. M. B/Fisher) was committed. The Hon. F.. M. B. Fisher said that it wae proposed to drop Clause 4, providing for the payment of members at the rate of £1 Is. per day while attending Harbour Board' meetings and conducting business of the board. The clause was deleted accordingly. Mr. G. Witty opposed Clause 15, providing that where an election was held simultaneously with an election of the !.' members of a looal authority, the Harbour Board should,not be required to pay more than 10, per cent, of the cost incurred.by the local authority. The Hon. F. M. B. Fisher said that it wasva Harbours Conference proposal.. The meinberehad not had an opportunity of advancing reasons for it. He would consent to drop .it, and it could be added next year if necessary. The clause was accordingly struck out, ' ■. VICTORIA COLLECE. The Victoria College Amendment Bill ■wau committed. Mr. R. M'Callum moved to delete the clauso providing for representation of tho Professorial Board on the College Council. Tho clause was retained by 31 votes to 12. Mr. W. H. D. Bell proposed an amendment in the constitution of the Council to provide for the election.of seven members instead of four by the District Court of Convocation of the Victoria University District. The amendment was defeated on tho voices. The Bill passed through Committee with minor amendments. BILLS REPORTED. Tlie Bills which had been through Committee .were reported. '••' Tlie Land Tax and Income Tax Bill was read a third time and passed. The other Bills had been amended in Committee, and the third readings of them could not therefore be taken. The House rose at 0.8 a.m.