New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 1871. THE WEEK.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 21, 17 June 1871, Page 11

New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 1871. THE WEEK.

+ As the Highways Bill is to be referred to a Belect committee, when it will doubtless come out in another, and we trust in an improved shape, we shall not, as we intended, give a precis of it in our'present issue, though it would be more interesting to country settlers than town readers may imagine. We feel reluctant to point out what we conceive to be glaring defeats in the proposed measure lest we should endanger the great principle it embodies. We will not even enter into the vexed question of a valuation, as opposed to an acreage rating, further than to observe that the present Superintendent was mainly instrumental in establishing the latter principle in the Roads Acts of this province; and, as far as rural land is concerned, we have reason to believe that he, in common with four-fifths of the country settlers, still thinks that the arguments used in its favor are as valid now as they ever were. A valuation rating, for what is designated town and suburban land in the Land Regulations, would be the right principle ; but we would not prevent the whole of the alienated lands of the province being brought under the rating clauses of the proposed bill by either insisting on the acreage, not average, principle being adopted, or both principles being recognised. Still less would we do so if that would be the means of reestablishing the vicious system of plural voting, which by the proposed bill is abolished. Much misapprehension exists a 3 to the effects of rates on the value of real estate, which it is most desirable at the present time should be removed. Rates imposed on property, if expended on war, defence purposes, official salaries, or unproductive undertakings will diminish the value of that property to a greater extent than the amount of the rate imposed.- But this is not the case with rates expended on local improvements. The rates, in that case, Instead of diminishing will increase the value of the property to a much greater extent than the amount of the rate paid. If, for example, this province could not participate in the Immigration and Public Works Loan without raising, by a land and property tax, a sufficient sum to cover. the interest and sinking fund of the amount required, it would prove more profitable to the taxpayer to pay the tax than to go without railroads, immigration, and public works; as these would increase the value of his property and the amount of his income to a much greater extent than his rates would amount to. The effect the construction of a railway would have on the value of land in its vicinity was incidently pointed eut by the Superintendent in his opening speech, where he recommends certain Crown lands to be reserved " in order that we may not have to repurchase lands which we alienated the day before at double or treble the price to-morrow." If property in the vicinity of a railway is thus immediately doubled or trebled in value, it would prove more profitable to the owner to pay almost any amount of rate that would be likely to be imposed, than to go without the railway. What is a penny in the pound or even a shilling in he pound on the present actual value of unopened lands if every penny or shilling spent adds twenty to its market value ? In order to show that the amount of rates imposed under the proposed Education and Roads Bills is most excessive, it has been pointed out by a contemporary that if a man had four children arid £IOOO worth of property, he would have to pay, in the shape of education rates and capitation fees, £3 Is Bd, and in the shape of Highway rates £4 3s 4d, making a total of £7 ss. But under the pre■ent system he would have to pay a,much larger sum for the education of his children, in the shape of school rate and fees, which together would amount to £ll per annum; and we submit that £4 3s 4d is not a large sum v for a man to pay who has a property worth £IOOO, for the construction and maintenance of the roads in his district j but it should be paid by the owner and not be borne by the temporary occupier. The whole of the roads in the province are at the present moment in a fearful state, owing in part to the very unusual arid long-continued wet weather, and in part to the collapsed condition of the provincial purse. The subject throughout the country districts may be con-

sidered as one of the prominent topics of the week. The question for decision in the outlying districts is whether the settlers shall pay a road or a transport tax—a direct tax for the construction and maintenance of roads, or a tax in the shape of enhanced carriage, or in an enhanced price of the goods they consume. It would be easy to show that the former, in the course of the year, would amount to a much smaller sum than the latter. We know a district where the carriage, owing to the construction of roads, is two-thirds less than what Was formerly charged j but where, if the roads and bridges are not maintained in a state of repairs, but are allowed to get as bad as they formerly were, the present cost of carriage will have to be doubled. In that case while the road tax proposed by the Government would amount to say £3OOO per annum, the transport tax would amount to at least £BOOO, and property instead of increasing would necessarily under such circumstances be greatly depreciated in value. Which of the two forms of taxes is preferable ?