THE LAND TAX IN VICTORIA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5360, 1 June 1878, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE LAND TAX IN VICTORIA.

(From the,'.Melbourne Aryus, May'll.)

On a recent occasion we published the complete returns to date of the* classification of estates under the Baud Tax Act. Half the acreage which it is estimated will come under the operation of the tax has been dealt with, and the 3,046,347 acres now classified yield a revenue of £67,614. The total return indicated by these figures is £135,000 ; but, on the one hand, the richest parts of the colony, have been dealt with, and, on the other, the Government are bringing pressure to bear to secure higher valuations. In some instances the department has refused to accept the valuation of its own officers, and has sent new men to make a re-classification, and this very practical bint is not likely to be lost sight of in the future. So far, the average charge is sd. per acre, which is something between the allround 6d. per acre proposed by the KerferdService Government and 'the 71 per cent, on the annual value submitted by Sir James McCulloch. The lOd. per acre" on which Mr. Berry calculated is, up to date, not realised.

Questions are put by the su-called Liberals why dissatisfaction should still be expressed with the impost; why landowners should grumble ; why evidence of a want of confidence on their part should from . time to time come before the public. The reply is simple, The tax has not been levied in a fair spirit, and it does not stand upon an equitable basis. A legitimate property tax would not have excited alarm. It is notorious that many of the large es ate-owners were quite willing that land should pay, and, indeed, were of opinion that property would be rendered more safe when it made a proper contribution to the cost of government. But the idea of raising a revenue from property was subordinated to to the idea of taking some sort of revenge on the rich. No attempt • was made to tax laud all round. Of the 43,000 laudowners in Victoria, only six or seven hundred were called upon to contribute; and the spectacle of six or seven hundred men being singled out by a dominant majority to be operated upon gives rise to unpleasant reflections. The helplessness of any particular class of pro-perty-holders against whom a heated democracy may conceive a prejudice or a grudge ■ becomes disagreeably conspicuous. ; And the circumstance that the tax may only prove half as heavy as its promoters intended does not assuage the doubts and fears thus occasioned. If our democracy were willing to stop at Dd. per acre, or merely proposed to extend the impost downwards to the smaller estates at the same or a reduced rate, no great harm would be done. The suspicion that haunts the capitalat, nud may reasonably make him prefer investment in land in other colonies to investment in land in Victoria, is, that the democratic party has merely tasted first blood. We have no guarantee but that they will be enraged by the probable failure of the Laud Tax Act to bring in the amount of the Treasurer’s estimate, instead of being grateful that accident has saved them from.the commission of a wrong. Neither the acta nor the language of Ministers are reassuring. The re-valuation of the estates is in itself indecent. The classifiers are sworn to do their duty, and the issue should be left to them. They are not likely to err on the side of leniency. To take a cognate instance, we may ask whether any borough council, looking over its official valuations, would send a second officer to increase the amounts of particular houses. The proceeding would bo termed indecent, and yet the Government is charged with doing this, and it has made no reply. And the landowner who is ill-used by one Government officer can only appeal to three other men who are .Ministerial nominees, and who can feel the- weight of Ministerial displeasure. To complete the picture, we have Ministers still awowing that their object is not to raise a contribution from wealth towards the expenses of the state, but to “ burst up,” i.c,, so to saddle certain property holders with penal taxes that they shall be glad to sell out at any sacrifice. They are to sell out in a country where the demand for land is fully satisfied by the division of the public territory, a portion of which can be obtained on almost nominal terms by any person who so desires. Since Parliament broke up we have had the Chief Secretary renewing his bursting-up covenant with his;followers, and describing the landowner as equally criminal with the slaveowner, and deserving of no better treatment. And with all this going on, the property holders in question are alternately vilified and ridiculed because they betray uneasiness. The state of mind to which the democratic critics have brought themselves must be'akin to that of the fishwife whom Charles Lamb overheard “ drafting” the eels because they would not lie still while she skinned them.

Experience, however, teaches. The Laud Tax Act requires to be reviewed in order to rid it of its glaring anomalies. The first-class land in Victoria may not be too heavily burdened by the impost. We have land which is leased at ifil and £2 per acre per annum, and on these acres the shilling charge is not excessive; but the poor lands, large areas of which it is proved do. not yield more than fid. or Is. per acre per annum, are terribly and unjustly burdened by even the minimum charge of, 3d. per. acre. But when tho time for revision comes, any ardor to punish capital should be considerably cooled by the recollections of the past six months. Events must have dope something to. convince the most hardened socialist that it is folly to attack,. to , alarm,, or to: disturb wealth. . What the democratic party succeeded in doing after; Christmas by the terror their proceedings excited was to discourage investment in Victoria, and no one has felt the strain more than the small houseowner, whose property has been depreciated, and the small tradesman, whose credit has been restricted. They must have learned that not a thousand pounds can be driven put of the eolony without all classes feeling it, and; that what we want is more of money, and not less, no matter in whose hands the money may be. ■ A man with money must invest it, and he cannot invest it without giving employment, We may hope that the men who have suffered of late will look with ill-favor upon any further attempts to “put tho screw”, on capital iu a menacing aud socialistic, spirit, aud that, despite Ministerial threatenings, they will see that the only revision of the land tax which can do good to Victoria is one of widening tho incidence of the present burden and of removing its monstrous anomalies.