BRITISH POLITICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 13 June 1931, Page 5

BRITISH POLITICS.

LAND TAX. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, June 11. The situation that will esc next week, in flu* Commons, whet) tin) Liberal lull-lulnumt to the In ml tax proposals ip the Government’s Finance 'Bill, will be discussed-, was described by Air Lloyd George in a speech at Edinburgh to-day as critical. 'the .Liberals propose that the tax should fall exclusively on undeveloped land, by conceding to owners the right to deduct from the land tax, the amount paid on the same land as incornu tax.

Newspapers state that the Government will resist the amendment, wliieh the Chief Liberal whip declares will he press, d. •Air Lloyd George said that they were taking this attitude not to create embarrassment for the Government, but because they demanded fair treatment for the owners of the land. A COMPROMISE EXPECTED. LONDON, June 12. Despite Mr Lloyd George's challenge, which is featured in the newspapers, there are suggestions, in several quarters, that there will be many conferences during the, week-end in an attempt to find a way out of the deadlock on the laud tax question. The commentators agree that neither the ■Liberals nor the Government demure an early election upon the taxation question, as the proposed tax does not operate until 1935.

A meeting of the Liberal members of the House of Commons spent several hours on Thursday in discussing possible modifications of the\Liberal amendment, but a final wording is not being adopted until there is a full Party meeting on Monday. Both the Liberal and Labour press direct attention to Mr Lloyd George s declaration in an article in a Scottish Labour paper this week to the eft cel that “an electron now might mean another five years of Tory rule. wth reaction reigning at home and abroad, which would he a calamity.'’

The “Dadv IT. raid." in an editorial. sayi tliait the Government, cannot, and will not. accept- any amendment winch will reduce the expected land tux revenue of five m ; ll ; ons by more than half and will nullify all of the provisions for the valuation of improved buildings on land aiming at the future rating of future land values. rjjKp “'Daily Prrahl’’ suggests thatthe Liberals well imt dare to force an election in which they would enter the campaign with the odium of having destroyed the land tax.