Manawatu Herald SATURDAY, OCTOBER. 11, 1919. LAND PRICES AND VALUES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2040, 11 October 1919, Page 2

Manawatu Herald SATURDAY, OCTOBER. 11, 1919. LAND PRICES AND VALUES.

OCR Wellington , evening contemporary says: There is a good deal to bo said for Mr Witty'' proposal that-'a Rig landowner's price to the Land Purchase Board, where the Board negotiates on behalf of soldiers, should become his land-tax valuation in the event of the Board considering the price too high. So Car, the Government has refused to resume big estates, lor soldiers, at pre-war values. This step was advocated during the war by Mr A. ]’. Whatman, who would have applied it to the biggest estates first, and so on down the scale; hut the Government would have nothing to do with compulsory purchase at any sort of an undel-value. The Post concludes: It now, however, becomes quite pertinent to ask why a landowner should not be taxed ou an over-value fixed by himself. It a landowner's price cannot be brought down to soldier-settlement capacity, why should not his tax valuation be raised to the level ol: his own assessment ? Where a quotation to soldiers is made, the presumption is that the landowner is quoting an economic value. And that value is • the very least ou which he should be taxed,