LAND MONOPOLY. l

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 344, 20 February 1889, Page 3

LAND MONOPOLY. l

Sir Harry Atkinson, in his recent address 'n Auckland, compared the amount likely lo be paid by the &ainc individuals under an income tax with the amount now paid by the largest payees of the property. tax. He taid ho had taken 146 of the largest pioperty Lax papers in the colony to see how the income tax would aUecb them. He found 86 of these weie large landowners and under the present property tax they contributed £42,000t0 the revenue. He had "the incomes of these taxpayers carefully estimated by the officers oi the Department, and it was iound that a sixpenny income tax would only produce trom'them £17,000." This utterance, when taken in connection with the official printed returns concerning the property tax, gives us some most interesting information, of a character not at all intended by the Premier when making it. We have never argued in favour of an iacome tax, it is certainly one step in advance of the property tax and that is about all that can be said for- it. It is cumbrous, inquisitorial and unequal, and not to bo mentioned in the same breath with a land tax, which could, we are convinced, if properly levied, be made to yield all the revenue that is necessary in addition to the other existing modes of taxation, without inflicting real injustice upon one single member of the community. In this country, where the land has been monopolised in large blocks by a comparative handful of pepple, and where, as Sir Harry Atkinson allowed the other evening, the lafid is the source of all wealth, it is surprising to find the Premier saying that only 86 of the biggest property tax payers are landowners. It was a pity he did not vouchsafe the further information as to what interests were represented by the remaining 60. However, we nmy take it for granted that the balance of the 146 is made up by the big financial institutions, insurance offices, and the importing merchants. The property tax return informs us that there are 548 taxpayers who pay £67 14s 2d and over. On pressure being bi ought to bear on the Department, the following further information was given : — That of these 548 taxpayers 359 pay £67 14s 2d and under ; 106 pay £169 5s 5d and under ; 48 pay £338 10s lOd and under; and 35 pay £677 Is 8d and over. We in the Auckland district have never experienced the evil effects of land monopoly to the same extent as they have in other parts of the colony, and those who have not studied the subject nor travelled through the colony can hardly realise the baneful effect such a selfish policy has upon the progress of the colony. Mr j McKerrow, the then Surveyor - General, leported'ten years ago that there was little or no land available for settlement in Canterbury, Otago, or Southland. Things have not improved in this respect in those districts since that time. Glancing at some of the estates in those districts, we find 90 of them containing an area of two and a-half million acres, an area that would provide happy homes and something more than acomfortablehvin^ lor 10,000 families, or apopulationsayotlo6,GoopLO[)lo.vvheieas now the total population on those estates does not in all probability foot up to 2,500. This is no overdrawn statement, it is a substantial fact, and it is evident that nothing bub a land tax will ever have the effect of bringing these lands mt) the market and c.i using 1 them to be occupied by a prosperous and progressive community. It must not be supposed thatallthebig estales sow held in freehpldinthis colony were oi iginally boughtand paid for in honest coin cr the realm at their actual value at the time oi purchase. This is far from being the case ; in some instances coin was never parted with, in otheis nothing like a fair equivalent was given. Land in the veiy early days mus bestowed in large blocks on condition* only, such for instance as a guaianteeto place a certain number of sheep upon them, increasing them in a certain ratio, for <i certain number of years. In hjo.sL of these case-, possession being nine points of the law, tho occupier in the long i tin was enabled to appropriate the propei ty m lee simple. It is argued that it is uiiian- to Lnx a man on laud that he has paid ioi, and pos&ibly paid for above its actutil vahu\ But in the case of those holders ot land in this colony who actually paid nothing ior their land, they should be taxed at the same late as it is consideied fair to tax the struggling village settler, namely live per cent. What was known as Pre-empti\ c Rights, aad Improvement Pre-emptive Itights, in the Southern provinces caused many thousands of acres of the public estate to pass without payment into the hands of the holders ot depasturing licenses. Gi id iconing, spotting, etc., were all brought into play with considerable skill and success to cause the transference of the one great wealth-producing commodity — the land — from the much-swindled public, to the hands of the select and privileged few, who now, forsooth, raise a cry of horror at being called upon to pay a fair tax to the State for monopolising what in the majority of instances they aie not legitimately using, bub which they are, at the same time, like the dog in the manger, precluding otheis from occupying and cultivating, and who would be only too willing to pay the tax required from them by the State, levied on the actual value only, and not on then improvements and outlay. Thirty years ago the talented author of the "Canterbmy Rhymes " unmercifully castigated the Southern squatters for the cruel, unpiogressive, anti-national policy they were pursuing. In February, 1858, he penned the following 1 :—: — <% You may sweep away conditions Winch tie up the land so closely, Only you'll except the squatter, Must not touch the rights of squatttns ; You may take the rights of lai mers, Of the millers, bakers, butchers, Tailors, drapers, clothiers, hatters, Soldiers, doctors, undertakers, » Of all trades and occupations. Of all people in the province; But the sheep-kings, the runholders, Them ye shall not touch nor injure." "So they kicked the farmer backward, From the fertile spots of country To the region of the westward | Never thinking of hereafter."

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