TAXES AND LAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 744, 17 August 1929, Page 9

TAXES AND LAND

budget debate still GOES ON * WORK FORJJNEMPLOYED ftrhe SClf’S Parliamentary Reporter) PARLIAMENT BLDGS., Friday. Taxation and land settlement again formed the subject of speeches in the Budget debate today. jlr. W. J- Broadfoot (Waitomo) said he disliked the primage duty, but he had failed to find any suitable substitute for it. He congratulated the prime Minister on his decision to increase the taxation of large land holdings, end said he knew personally of some landholders who, in recent years, had escaped paying tax to a very heavy extent, and it was time they •sere confronted with an additional share of the country's burden. Regarding the development of the pumice lands. Mr. Broadfoot said the problem should be tackled from Rotorua as the centre and an area with a 20-miles radius should first be brought into a state of productivity. Modern means of transport should be used, and eventually when there was enough productive land in the district to justify it a railway should be constructed. Mr. W. L. Martin (Raglan) congratulated the Prime Minister on the fact that in the Budget he was making an endeavour to bring about a more equitable system of taxation. It was to be hoped that the optimism of the Prime Minister -would be justified and that, by the united efforts of all parties, they would be able to reach s position of general prosperity. Mr. Martin expressed the belief that a great number of the country’s difficulties would disappear if a State bank were established. Mr. Martin went on to refer to unemployment. He considered the real solution of the problem was to be found in eA ploying men to develop idle lands. He was not in favour of relief works. It would give men heart and inspiration if, instead of having to cut down hills just for something to do, they were employed in making a living on the land. He cautioned the Government against purchasing land that waß already producing at or near Its full capacity. He feared that something of this Sort had happened in the case of the Westella purchase. The Government had paid £55 an acre for this land, end the cost to the people would be somewhere near £7O an acre. If that land was already producing up to its full capacity then he was afraid the Minister of Lands had paid too much for it- It would have been far better to have put the money into idle land. He urged the Government not only to carry out to the full its policy of closer land settlement, but to provide roads to serve all areas settled at the present time. He stated the land policy would have to be put into effect with

more rapidity than at present if the Government were to remain in office. Mr. G. R. Sykes (Masterton) congratulated the Government on its decision to develop waste lands, but he said every care should be taken that the capital should be expended judiciously. Hundreds of unemployed could be used in preliminary preparation of land for settlement. Provided the right areas were purchased and the right men were chosen he anticipated the scheme would have successful results. He cited a case of hardship that would follow the increased land taxation, and he recommended the inclusion of a clause to meet this and Similar positions. The Prime Minister bore no facial resemblance to Lenin or Trotsky, Mr. Sykes added, and he trusted that when the land legislation was presented to the House rlan-a n a t f ° UDd that a hardship clause had been included. Tuesda.y. ebate W ’ iU be continue(l on