Rangitikei Advocate. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1907. SECOND EDITION. EDITORIAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXI, Issue 8731, 4 February 1907, Page 2

Rangitikei Advocate. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1907. SECOND EDITION. EDITORIAL NOTES.

!. Misr-T.cjc; at present seem to bo inj clinod to fall back on the graduated 1 land tax as a possible alternative to the scheme proposed in the Land Bill. Mr M'j.Vab is naturally rather hurt at the idea of ids darling project > being “helved and Lints that the landowners would merely bo falling out of the frying pan into the lire if the new proposal wme accepted, lie said at Jc.vin the r ther day “ If you accomplish the 10.-uiit wo want to accomplish by a graduated tax, the graduated tax v.uil pinch a number of people under the £50,000 limit. The graduation must he h?;avy, and f-o heavy that estate;! much above £50,000, except in rare cases, would not l<e held.” The necessity for n. graduated tax to affect the smaller holders is a mere figment of the M ini.uterial imagination as the result he desires could ho produced easily enough by leaving the present tax alone up to the £50,000 limit and increasing it sharply above that point, flat toe Minister desire?! to bluff the smaller land holder;! into supporting j the Bill for fear of what may happen i if they oppo?X; it. He forgets that it I is not safe to bluff on weak cards { when the adversary holds a full ; hand. I An not many person! are in tho 1 fortunate position of having to pay

the graduated land tax a few details as to its present amount and incidence may be of interest. The graduated tax is quite independent of and additional to the ordinary land tax of Id in the pound Under the regulations for land tax the owner of land of which the total unimproved value, together with mortgages owing to him, docs not exceed £ISOO (after deducting mortgages owing to him) is allowed an exemption of £SOO but after that point the exemption diminishes until when £2500 is reached the tax is payable on the full amount. If the amount of the unimproved value of land owned amounts to £SOOO or over the graduated tax touches the owner with a hand which, though light at first, grows heavier as his lauded property increases in value. Starting from a rate of 1-lGd in the pound it increases to 3d i?a the pound on estates with an unimproved value of more than £210,000. Heritages are not chargeable with graduated tax, but on the other hand they are not to be deducted in assessments for graduated tax. This provision of course strikes at those who hold large areas heavily mortgaged. The chief point to be noted about j graduated taxation is that it has j twice been increased in the last | thirteen years, first in 1893 ami j again iu isJOll. The last turn of the i screw therefore only began to be felt in 1904, and it seems very unfair to prouosc again to increase the tax before a reasonable time has been allowed to elapse in order lo give a satisfactory tost as to whether the present tax is sufficient to break up the largo estates at which it is aimed. Some parsons seem to believe that a graduated land tax will produce a large revenue, but it is clear that so far as it succeeds in reducing the areas of large estates so far must it fail as a method of producing revenue. Nothing can bo worse for a country than .constant changes in taxation, which must produce uncertainty and loss. IE after ten years it is found that the graduated tsx imposed in 1908 has not tended to prevent the

aggregation of largo holdings steps t might thou bo taken to increase ths : severity- of its incidence over the - £50,000 limit.