LAND TAX.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 February 1928, Page 3

LAND TAX.

OUTCRY IN AUSTRALIA. SYDNEY", February Hi. The Press lias taken advantage of the visit to Sydney of the Commonwealth Treasurer (Dr. Page) to tell him in plain and unequivocal terms what it, as the mouthpiece of the public, thinks of tbe Federal land tax. In its application it is regarded as the most iniquitous tax ever imposed in Australia. In tbe sixteen years of its operation it lias produced revenue totalling about .£30,000,000, tho bulk of which has been derived, not from the country and from the subdivision of estates, as was originally intended, but from the city. The reduction of the tax by about £500,000 under the latest Federal Budget is regarded as a mere fleahlte. The concensus ol opinion it. that it ought to be wiped right out. in view of the fact that it bus not achieved its original purpose, that, from the standpoint of bursting up big estates, it is useless, because it cannot discriminate satisfactorily between the States, and that it is to day. openly and unashamedly, a plain revenue tax, like Customs, and nothing more or less. The Federal Government, according to Dr. Page, is going to wipe out the tax by a gradual process. I lie public knows, however, lrom bitter experience, that Governments find it difficult to surrender sources of handsome revenue once they lay tlior liainds on them. The fact that no less than about fit) per cent of tbe land tax is derived from the big cities throughout Australia speaks for itself.