The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 1929. LAND POLICY.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 August 1929, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 1929. LAND POLICY.

The outstanding feature of the Budget is,, of course, the new land settlement policy of the Government. The boldness of the proposals recalls the big days of the nineties of last century, when the Liberal land settlement policy was the subject, of unprecedented bitterness in Parliament, and of unrestrained recrimination in all the organs of conservatism. The criticism will be milder now, because the wisdom of the old Liberal policy has been proved abundantly, and because ever since 1 the Great War the country has been calling loudly 1 for a revival of Liberal ideas. Broadly, the Government proposes to devote five millions of loan money to the acquisition of land for settlement and the encouragement of settlers. Whereever possible new 1 lands are to be broken in, and liberal advances are to be made to approved selectors to enable them to carry out improvements, the land being given them at a nominal cost. This, of course, was the keynote of the original advances policy, so that Sir Joseph Ward fs simply returning to his first system. At the same v time it is proposed to acquire and cut up large estates, and so promote the subdivision of extensive holdings. At this point the same Minister, reviving the policy

of Ballance and Seddon, calls new taxation to his aid, and it is on the subject of taxation that the storm will rage, if, indeed, a storm repiUy develops. As Finance Minister, Sir Joseph, as everyone knows, has to wipe out a deficit of over half a million sterling, and partly to raise fresh revenue, partly to discourage large holdings, he proposes that Parliament should impose a supertax, over and above, the land tax, on all farming lands in .excess of £13,500 Unimproved value. The super-tax is to be on a graduated scale, reaching 50 per cent of the land tax at an unimproved value of £15,000 and 100 per cent at unimproved values of and over £30,000. This is. a development of the old “bursting-up’’ policy familiar to the politicians of thirty or forty years ago. We shall have to argue over again, no doubt, the question whether large holdings are, or are not, in the interests of the Dominion, but the Finance 'Minister has this in his favour that, apart from the economic principles involved, he has to find fresh revenue and does not know where else to seek it. He proposes, also, to reduce the mortgage exemption from £IO,OOO to £SOOO. Thejn with a view to placing farming incomes on the same footing as business incomes in regard to taxation, he proposes that inoomep earned from [properties exceeding £12,500 unimproved value shall Ibe assessed for taxation purposes, and the estates shall pay land tax or income tax, whichever is the greater. Under this scheme leasehold lands and freehold lands will be treated alike. The effect of this change will pot be seen at once, but it is to be applied in the current year and is, therefore, retrospective, a point that will not be overlooked by the Government’s opponents. The total amount of extra taxation to be raised from the land is apparently £350,000, rather more than 25 per cent of thei present land tax revenue. Like every other addition to taxation the scheme is open to criticism, but one’s first impression is that the .Prime Minister is placing the burden where it is least likely to disturb the economic conditions. From the other .aspect the proposals promise a (marked stimiulation df closer settlement, and on that side there is nothing but good to be said of them.