PARLIAMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 12 October 1907, Page 2

PARLIAMENT.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11. (By Telegraph.—Per Press Association). : Wellington, Friday. The Council met at 2.,'i0 p. .in The Hon. Mr. Jones continued the debate on the second reading of the LAND AND INCOME TAX BILL. He was of opinion that a much more stringent measure should have passed thi! Lower House. The Bill had been described as a socialistic measure. The same had been said of every other reform that had ever been brought forward. He would have preferred last | year's Bill with its limitation proposals to that before the Council. It was a Kcnndal that men holding large areas of land should still be in a position to add to their already large holdings. One thing he regretted about the measure was this—it would cause partitioning of the land, which would make matters more difficult for the settler than if the land had been resumed by the Government. He would like to see the Government still continuing to purchase land under the Lands for Settlement Act.

The Hon. Mr. Smith said he agreed with ihe Bill, but nothing was tp le gained by hurling hard words at those opposed to it. So far as the Bill was concerned, he supported it. He believed it was going in the right direction, but he questioned whether members of the Legislature fully realised what the increased taxation would mean. In the case of estates of £150,000 in value the tax had been doubled, and if the prices of produce went down the turn of the screw might be keenly felt. Like others, he _ favored last year's Bill, with its limitation clause. The heavy graduated tax to him savored of an injustice. He did not like the idea of a man being taxed out of the estate which he had legally acquired, but he recognised the Bill was an honest attempt to deal with a very diilicult subject.

The Hon. Mr. Anstey said very few of those members who hsd spoken hud had any practical experience 7n the matter of paying land-tax. The Hon. Mr. Paul had said the Fanners' Union as a general body had no definite opinion on the question of limitation, but Mr. Paul, as a member of the Land Commission which had travelled all round the colony, must know that that organisation and the moving spirits associated with it in no way represented the farming classes of New Zealand. The main principles of the Bill commended themselves to him, but he contended that the land-tax was an extra tax on the farmer, who had to pay his fair share of all other taxation. He approved the principle of limitation. He believed the land-tax should be levied in two ways. There should be land tax to be paid by the owner and graduated tax to Ire paid by the occupier. This would do away with many difficulties under the Bill. A man holding a large area should be exempted from the heavy graduated tax if he cut up a certain percentage of his estate in the first year and so on over a period of, say, five years. He characterised the jumping nature of taxation as a disgrace. For instance, a man who owned £40,000 worth of land would have to pay £55 more in graduated tax than the man with £30,900 worth, and in general taxes he would have to pay over

€IOO more. This would not be tolerated.

The Hon. Mr. Loughnnn congratulated the Government on its clearness of vision in regard to the land question. The Hon. Mr. Wigram approved the general principles of the Bill, but questioned whether it would be possible to carry out the provisions of the measure in regard to including in the amount of land subject to the tax shareholders' interest in land held by a company. The Hon. Mr. Tucker objected to what he called the duplicity of the intention of the Bill. If a man held a large area of land he was called a social pest, and if he subdivided it the proceeding was called evasion. He objected to retrospective legislation, hut approved of the main princrples of the Bill. At 4.55 p.m. the dehnte was adjourned on the motion of the Hon. Mr. Macdonald, and the Council rose.