THE Manawatu Times. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13,1879. A LIBERAL LAND LAW.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 65, 13 August 1879, Page 2

THE Manawatu Times.

WEDNESDA Y, AUG UST 13,1879. A LIBERAL LAND LAW.

" Words are^ things, and a drom'of ink failing like ' dow upon a thougmi. produces titr-'t whi^i makes thousands, pcrkaps millions think." ♦

Of all tlie various measures which, should occupy the attention of the I/ecjislature, there is not one fraught with so much importance as a fair, equitable, and liberal land law. When the Land Tax AJct of last Session ,was passed, the advent of the measure was hailed with joy and jubilation by a certain section of the community, and it was looked .upon as<a grand victory of Liberalism over plutocracy. Experience has amply shown m the attempt to put its machinery info execution, that the measure is not only faulty m administration, but that the bases upon which it has been constructed, are unfair and unjust. The law which presses with undue .severity upon any one section of the community, merges into persecution, and cannot be classed under the heading of legitimate legislation ; for while the true policy of legislation should be to compel all to pay a fair quota toward the burden of tlie State, care should taken that the yoke should press unfairly on none. People are very apt to apply a very broad meaning to the ward Liberalism, tlie larger section viewing with favor any attempt to enrich or benefit the masses at the expense of the few. There can be no doubt that the doctrine of c i the greatest good to the greatest number " is a very laudable one ; but that is by no means a license to plunder the one m order- to benefit the other ; aud this certainly to our mind would appear to be the head and front of the present Land Tax. Class legislation is not only unjust but impolitic, for assuredly 'no wrong can exist for any length without it bringing, a consequent evil or evils m its train. "VVe know that tho Land Tax has found favor with not only a few, but with a great many, because the bulk of the community has been exempted from the pressure ; but those who hold such views would act upon the principle of handicapping the result of honest industry. They do not say that the rich man shall he taxed m proportion to his -wealth, but that the prosperous and industrious toiler, who has expended the fruits of- his labor m the purchase of land, have such a drag placed upon him, as to compel him to dispose of his property. If there must" be a tax upon land — and we certainly are of the opinion that such an impost is nece^ary — it should be one which would compel every owner of land m the colony, be he great or. small to pay a pro rata contribution according to the valne of his- holding, and this can he done only hy an acreage tax. "Divide the land into four classes : — 1. Grodd arnVlplnn'l m cultivation. 2. Onen land fit for cultivation.* 3. Good bn«h land. .And 4. Sandy soil, or land of little use for cultivation.' Having thus made the proper classification the next question is the sum per acre ns per catftiflcation,.Buch aa, Bay, for the first class, twopence per acre: for the second, three half pence ; for the third, one penny; and "for the fourth, a half-penny per acre. Of course i the sums - mentioned, are purely supposififciqup, and could he either raised or lessened m amount according to the wisdom or discretion of the fr'amer of the Bill. The principle involved m the proposed arrangement would be, that while the kq natter, who might have his thousands or tens of thousands of acres of land for cultivation,, would have to pay an impost on every acre m the lesser suhi ; -those who were possessed of the pick of the soil would- be taxed m the first class. By this means the owner of; 5,000 acres of fourth .c,lass land would' contribute something like £10 a year to the revenue ; while the farmer with 150 acres m cultivation, would pay at the rate of £1 ss. per year. One of the greatest arajujjrsiss \y*e4 by the_ admirers of the

Land Tax, appears certainly to us one of the very strongest arguments against it, and that is that it is calculated to carry out the great " bursting up " policy at oue time m such favor m Victoria. Supposing even that good were to come from such a manp3uyre, we certainly hold that this is by no means a case m which "the end would justify the means." But we go farther, and we say that no good can or could come out of such a grossly unfair step.. There might be a shadow of justification if all the waste lands of the colony had passed from the possession of the Grown, and we had a population without having soil upon which they could settle ; but, as is well known, were our population five times its present amount, there would be still land enough and. to spare to give each one a holding of his own, without the State acting the part of a generous highwayman by robbing the rich to give to the pooi». The Land Tax was one of the few measures passed by the G-overnment last year, and were it not tha.t its failure will possibly lead tq its ultimate amendment, we could have wished that it had shared the fate of its twin sister — the Beer Bill. Our sympathies always - have been, and always will be, with the cause of labor, and the tillers rather than the lords of the soil ; , still every class has its rights, and to advocate that one section of the community should be unfairly mulcted to the total exemption of the other, would" be to our mind a violation of the wholesome advice, " Be just before being generqus..