LAND VALUES LEAGUE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2531, 4 August 1915, Page 5

LAND VALUES LEAGUE

NEW FIGHTING PLATFORM.

The following new fighting platform was adopted by the Land Values League's Conference held in Fowlds' Building,. Manners Street, yesterday "Assessment of all rates on unimproved land values. "The land tax to be increased' by another penny in the £, with 110 exemption for the additional penny; the revenue so raised to bo applied to the reduction of Customs duties on the necessaries of life, and coupled- with a reduction of railway freights and fares. "The adoption .of effective voting and proportional representation for all elections." \ The resolutions carried yesterday wero as follow:— "That in the opinion of this conference no Town-planning Act can be effective that does not contain adequate provision for land values taxation." "That whereas under our present! orude electoral system majorities do not always rule, and minorities are not adequately represented, this conference affirms the desirability of adopting proportional representation as the only just and sufficient remedy." • "That this conference directs attention to the failure of the system, of purchasing land for closer settlement under the Land for Settlement Acts. According to the latest New Zealand Year Book, £6,936,613 was expended in the acquisition of estates, with ■ incidental expenses amounting to £581,832, while the selectors on the lands so acquired numbered only 5529, and' ■ 96,365 acres of the purchased land were undisposed of. We have always maintained that the Act in . question was fundamentally unsound, and 1 would prove futile to satisfy the ' land hunger. The.- official figures'above quoted fully bear out the correctness of our contention and emphasise the fact that the solution of the land question, can be found' through taxation alone." , . The conference concluded yesterday. The National Executive, with headquarters at Auckland, for 1915-16, was constituted as follows: —President, Hon. .Geo. Fowlds; vice-presidents—Auckland, Mr. C. D. M'Lean; Wellington; Mr. P. J. O'Regan; Christchurch, Mr. C. H. Nightingale; Dunedin, to be selected by branch; secretary and troawrer, Mr. G. M. Fowlds. A cablo convoying the greetings of the conference was directed to be sent to an American Single Tax Conventionmeeting at the Panama Exposition, San Francisco, this, month.