LAND MONOPOLY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 283, 27 May 1912, Page 7

LAND MONOPOLY

SOME INTERESTING FIGURES.

1 A considerable portion of the Hon. G, j Fowld's address in the Good Templar IHall on Saturday was devoted to an ardent appeal for land reform. He advoeated, in this connection, the imposition of a direct tax, say of a penny in the pound, on the unimproved value. In dwelling on the evils of the present system, Mr. Fowlds stated at the outset that they had heard d, great cry about freehold and the benefits it offered, and he, for one, was quite satisfied with that tenure; in fact, he would almost require it for his <loctrine. He instanced a land sale that had taken place at Hawera that day to show that the community required that some substantial portion should be received by it of the value that it created. At the sale he had in mind, a big estate was offered for sale in sections of about 50 acres, and the prices ranged variously from £67, £67 10s, £6B to £69 an acre. Clearly, added the speaker, the man who "Bought at those prices put a very considerable load around his neck for the rest of his life. His only hope was to re-sell to a bigger fool than himself at an advanced or a,t the same price. In the speaker's opinion, the State should have had a cut in to at least the extent of ,a penny in the pound. This would not 'increase the price to the purchaser, for it was all the world over a recognised fact that a tax on land values could not survive a change in ownership. During the last nineteen, years the unimproved value of land in the Dominion had increased by no less than £126,625 000, and that in- j crease went into the hands of a compara- I tive few, in the shape of about 40,000 individuals, or 22,000 families. The last [ Government return showed that three-.-, quarters of the people owned land from £SOO downwards, while the remaining quarter possessed land valued at upwards of £SOO. A penny in Tne pound tax on the unimproved value would bring in a revenue of £626,000. This would allow a decrease in Customs taxation amounting to 12s 6d per head of the population. It also meant that by paying lis 3d by means of this tax, a small farming family would receive remissions in Customs duties on the necessaries of life to the amount of £4 13s 9d. He instanced how, if the tax was in operation, the land comprised in the doorway of his premises in Auckland would pay a tax equivalent to twelve or fourteen farms, while the tax produced from land in Auckland City and suburbs would represent more th*n would be collected in all the land north of, and ten counties south of. Auckland. It was in the existing conditions that the great bulk of the social problem was traceable.