The Incidence of Taxation

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 2, 19 June 1890, Page 3

The Incidence of Taxation

The following is an extract made from the report of Mr Macarthur's .address at Palmerston North, published in the Manawatu Times:— Mr Xiyon then asked if it was not a fact that under the present incidence of I taxation they were burdening the industry of the colony, and allowing the land speculator to reap a rich harvest Mr Macarthur replied in the negative. They had tried the land tax, and what was the effect ? The mortgagees ■escaped altogether, and the unfortunate farmer had to pay the whole of the tax, while the man who waaieally .getting the benefit of the farmer's industry escaped scot free. What was the value of the unimproved land in New Zealand? The total value of land outsides boroughs was £76,000,000 ; ©f that sum about £57,000,00(%epreaented the value of land, and £19,---000,000 represented the value of improvements on the land. In the Boroughs £15,500,000 represented the improvements, and £19,000,000 the value of the land. In' the country therefore, they had £57,000,000 as against £19,000,000 in the towns, representing the value of the land, and £19,000,000 as against £18,000,000, representing the improvements. At present the country was paying £2 in taxation to £1 paid by the town, and if the unimproved values only were taxed, it would mean that the farming population would be paying £3 to every £1 by the town. He was not going to support any proposal which would make such an alteration in the incidence of taxation as that (applause). The farmers, the whole producing force of the country, were already taxed up to the hilt, and yet they would endeavor to throw more taxation upon them. The protective tariff had already put a heavy burden upon them, they who formed the greatest factor in the country's prosperity (applause). It was very easy to talk about shifting the incidence of taxation, and in this country, where the State had a lot of land to sell, they would wish to say "You take the land and we will tax you, while we-in the town escape scot free." , He would never be a supporter of such a ; ; policy as that (applause). \