Manamatu Herald. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1890. Land and Income Tax.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 18 October 1890, Page 2

Manamatu Herald. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1890. Land and Income Tax.

The proposal to raise an Income Tax and levy a Land Tax is made so glibly, that people may he misled tv boliove that they will as easily bo paid. If the Unionists are returned in a majority to (he House, the Property Tax is to be abolished. lu> <r niter number of the small I 1 '.; nii-i s i-ulf.u 1 vimt littlo by the IV pony .'"fix. ;;■- ili.'.v iiro allowed t xhiii| tinns mi £'.)!) I in value, and all bortownl p.ioiioy i< also wii'.ton off, t'i. •! ii'i'i? bet..]-.- {juyono pays ho i:.u.-st bo the owner of over £.500 ' WKilb of propm-tv. The farmor's

fri'ii 1 proposes to alter a 1 that T T o must havo a Land Tax on a 1 land, tb. it is. land, wi houi, ilie itn-p-ov< j tnents oa .ted .h reo . his tax w II have f.. be paid by every owner, n> mj'Uv how s-nai! thn ho ling. Tlum ibe ain.muu hut, it will b<- nocess'ry to ra so doinands jiiten ion. ho propose zof ih's cix will swoop away £355,000 of

; 'i't»pHry 'ax. ainl argo amount, some £250.000 in us >:n s du'i aon the necessiirios tf lii.i. so h t tin* lan 1 will h.iv<- to rcum some £Goo, 000 less £100,000 which an Income Tax ia reckoned to yield. Poor farmers, whereas under the Properly Tax your land was only asked to find £190,625 you will bo asked to pay £505,000. Our adversaries may say that we have not estimated the amount derivable from the Income lax fairly, it may be *o and we wou d ghul'.y listen to their figures, but Sir Harry Atkinson Jus publicly declared that this is the amount thai can bo raise I, and any increase to reproduce sufficient rove me would necessitate an imposition of one shilling and seven pence in the pound Income Tax !! ! Farmers rofleer, if you agree to a land and Income Tax you agree to pay two taxes, for if you can pay the land tax, you must have also an income on which a tax car. be assessed. We take from Hansard tho fol owinpf extract from a sppch made last year, and we purposely omit the name of the speaker so that his remarks may be weighed without prejudice.

Ouce more, looking at the question of a land tax and an Income Tax as preferable to a Property Tax, I would endeavour to show why we should not Ireat land hardly. Lot us suppose three young men coming from the Old Country and arriving simultaneously in New Zealand with £1000, £2000, i;:iO()0, X-WUi). or IMOOO in their pockets— a de^ira'-le class of settlors— the very men we want to onivu' and settle as farmers. One, liein™ of m lazy and indolent turn of mind, invests his L"">000 at such rate of interest as he can gel. and passes his existence loafing round 1> lliard-rooms and swaggering down town. This man is to be exempt fioin taxation, becausa he does not possess any land. The next man, having a litt'c more ineigy. buys a section of land, puts up a public-house wiih plateglass windows and flaring gas. and draws what he can out of the evil habits of his fellow-ir.en ; and he, being also a nonworker, is to be exempt from taxation. But the third man takes off his coat, travels miles and miles into the wilderness. takes up a piece of land and spends the best years of his life in bringing it into cultivation. He comes down occasionally to town hardened by work; but he spends the best years of his life in reclaiming the wilderness. Ho does not merely make " two blades of grass grow whore only one grew before "—lie makes two blades of grass where none grew befove, and ho is the man who deserves well of his country. Therefore we are to put a grinding tax upon him. The property tax does not do that. The man who hangs about the town and swaggers down the street and spends his time in a billiard room har, to pay a tux on his property ; and the man who sets up a public-house and draws his profits from the tTil habits of the dissolute has also to pay his (ax. as he on,,;ht to do. Ido not want the man who goes into the wilderness and reclaims it ,to be exempt from taxation, but I sny that every man should pay his fair share of taxation, and then there will he far loss hardship in paying the tax throughout the fount rv."