BUDGET ITEMS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 490, 10 August 1912, Page 3

BUDGET ITEMS.

LAND TAX EXTENSION. WHAT THE NEW LIMIT COVERS. A return recently prepared by the Valuation Department to show the unimproved value of estates of £20,000 and over starts its enumeration at that figure and not at the amount proposed by the Government, which is £30,000. However, this enables a fairly close indication to be given of the extenison of the graduated tax principle. At present the progressive graduated tax is increased by 25 per cent, in the case of all land other than business premises which are of an unimproved value of £40,000. The return includes business premises, so that it covers a wide range from the tax, 136 private individuals and 27 companies being enumerated in the lists of land owners posgesing estates of unimproved value of £40,000 and i over. The fairly big extension of the super tax proposed is evident from the following table, though it does nut accurately show the position, -because untaxed business sites are included as estates set out. £20,000 to £30,000, 319 persons, 29 companies; over £30,000 and under £40,000 146 persons, 11 companies; £40,000 to £50,000, 54 persons, 5 companies; £50,000 to £60,000, 35 persons 4 companies; £60,000 and over 47 persons, 18 companies; total, 601 persons, 67 coinpan iesT THE MAGISTRATES.

An attempt will be made during the next session of Parliament to place the Stipendiary Magistrates of the Dominion upon a more satisfac tory footing. The responsible nature of the duties performed by these gentlemen warrants the State in paying adequate salaries. In some cases they are under-paid, and no fixed principle appears to have been laid down for regulating the annual increment which the habit of years has led them to expect. For the thirty magistrates at present employed hy the State, there are ten different grades of salaries. To place the magisterial bench in the same position as judges of the Supreme Court is not in the existing circumstances practicable, but there is no reason why the magis trates should not be classified into, say, two or three divisions, appropriate salaries being fixed by law for those in each division, and the present objectionable system of voting annual increases on the Estimates abolished. Such a system would help to remove existing anomalies and any discontenlwhich may exist at the present time, and it would probably induce more men of experience and ability to offer their services as magistrates.