THE Temuka Leader. THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 1891. LAND AND INCOME TAX.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2240, 13 August 1891, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 1891. LAND AND INCOME TAX.

The simple meaning of the proposed new taxation is that £61,000 will be taken off the shoulders of the small farmers and put on the large landowners. The large landowners and the wealthy classes everywhere object to this, In their co-operative societies, chambers of commerce, and their other societies, they have attacked the proposals violently, and they predict utter ruin as the result of it. Amongst those who have condemned it is Mr -John Dean, of Christchurch. He is a gentleman whose land is valued at £4per acre for property-tax purposes, but he would not sell it for less than £l6 per acre. Of course anything he may say ought to be listened to with great attention. At present be pays onefourth of what he ought to pay under the property tax, and of course he objects to disturbing present arrangements. Then another is Mr Stead. He went into figures on the subject, and showed how the whole country would be ruined. He made it appear that the farmers would pay double the present taxation, but the Wellington Press, the most bitter opponent the present Government has, showed that his figures were all unreliable. No one need trouble much about the figures of these gentlemen. They will try to make black look white in order to carry their point. What the farmer has to consider are the facts before him, witnout any reference at all to figures cooked purposely to deceive him. Now here are the facts : Atpresent the farmer pays one penny in the £ property tax on the value of his land, improvements, cows, sheep, horses, money in the bank, furniture, etc. The proposal of the present Government is that he shall pay one penny in the £ land tax on the value of his land, without any improvements on it. Every visible improvement is to be deducted, and a value will be put on the land as if it were in native tussock. Now is it possible that a farmer will pay as much for land in tussock as for land on which houses have been built, fences erected, and drains made, besides being stocked with sheep and cattle ? Farmers can find out for themselves exactly what they will have to pay. The improvements, including cattle, sheep, and other effects, must be equal to half the value of their property. If so, they will only pay half what they pay now; that is, the man who pays £lO now will pay only £5 then. Let those people figure away; if cattle, sheep, and improvements are exempt, it stands to reason that farmers will not pay as much as they do now. Then what is the good of these people raising the cry of the farmers being ruined? It simply comes to this: they never count the small farmer—he is not worth talking of, in their opinion—and when they talk about farmers they only mean the large-estated gentlemen. The sum of £61,000 will be taken off the small farmers and put on the large ones, and they want to know why this is done. There are several reasons for it, amongst them being that the Government want to discourage large farmers and encourage small ones; the large farmers are better able to pay than the small ones, and the large farmers have been swindling the Government by undervaluing their land in the past: Our advice to farmers is not to trouble about what these gentlemen say, or believe their figures. Time will show that we are telling the truth; that is, if the Bill passes in its present form.

WORKING MEN

The whole cry now is that the working man will suffer through the change in the incidence of taxation. One man is reported to have spoken as follows:—■•' The change means that I shall have to pay £IOOO a year more taxation ; that £IOOO I have hitherto spent on improvements, but I shall not have it to spend, and consequently I will not be able to give employment." We cannot give, the name of the gentleman who said this ; we can only say that it appeared in the Christchurch Press, as well as a great many similar statements. We are greatly afraid these warnings are not all idle or meaningless. When many years ago the Liberal party in Victoria adopted a, line of policy which the wealthy classes did not like very hard times followed. In order to make the working people believe that the policy was ruining the county, the wealthy classes stopped all the works under their control, and threw out of employment as many as possible. Of course this resulted in fearful hardship, but in the course of time things righted themselves. We are greatly afraid the wealthy classes will resort to similar tactics in this colony, They are very angry, very united, and very i determined. They could easily do it.'

The large farmers could postpone many things for a time, and in that way greatly lessen the incomes of the wage-earners. We hope they will not eta it—we hope they will have better sense—but if they do the Government must find the people employment, and increase taxation until they realise that discretion is the better part of valor.

ESCAPING TAXATION.

The Union Steamship Company proposes to remove its headquarters to Sydney if it is to be taxed. If the Union Company likes to destroy itself of course it can go to Sydney. The Union Company has escaped taxation hitherto; it paid no property tax, it paid no stamp duty, it gave no help to the revenue; but now, when it is to

be taxed, it is going to take its headquarters to Sydney. One beautiful thing is its claim to be called a local industry. Was there ever such impudence? One-eighth of the shares are owned in the colony, and the other seven-eighths fire owned in England. Out of every £8 of the value of the company £7 of it belongs to people in England, yet we are told it is a local industry ! Let them take their headquarters to Sydney, and if they do they will find they will ruin themselves. Its it not terrible that these wealthy companies are doing everything they can to escape taxation ?

TAXATION.

The Land and Income Tax Bill is now practically passed. The chief.feature of it was passed last Tuesday night. The point was this : The Governmsnt proposed that improvements up to £3OOO should be exempt from taxation. This did not suit the large landowners. They wanted all improvements exempt, no matter what sum they might amount to. . The Government objected to this on the ground that they would not have sufficient revenue if this were done, but they said that after they had one year's experience of the tax they would exempt all improvements then if they found it practicable. They say that it would make no difference to anyone who had less land than 10,000 acres, but that if the improvements above £3OOO were saken off the exemption of £SOO would have to be added to the value of the poor Maoris' 1-nd. The thing, therefore, is now settled, and the Government carried their proposal by a large majority.

THE PRICE OF MONEY.

The banks of this colony raised the price of money lately by increasing the interest on deposits from to 5 per cent. We are told the banks have more money than they can find investment for, and that everything is stagnant in consequence of the proposed change in tlie incidence of taxation. If this is so the action of the banks is unexplainable. When banks are willing to give a high rate of interest for the loan of money it indicates that trade is brisk. When trade is brisk the banks want money to lend out on overdraft, but when it is dull, and very little is doing, their customers do not want overdrafts. The action of the banks, therefore, in raising the price of money, indicates that things are not so bad as represented. The old policy of the Tories was to cry the country down when they were out or office, and very possibly the cry of •' Hard times " at present is a part of their plan.

BANK OF VAN DIEMAN'S LAND. Just a word on the bursting up of this bank. It was apparently sound, showing splendid assets and paying a dividend of 6 per eent., but all at once it closed, and created dismay throughout the whole colony. A proposal is made to carry it on if the Government guarantees its notes, and the Government offers to do so. A few years ago, when we used to advocate a State Bank the wiseacres used to laugh and say the bank was a better security for the notes than the Government. Is it not most extraordinary that the Government of Tasmania, which is supposed to be pretty hard up, is now considered good enough to guarantee the notes of the bank. In that case the bank would never have broke if it had been a Government concern, for people would have had confidence in it.

BRITISH COMMERCE

There are not signs wanting that hard times are in ''store for the British workman. The McKinley tariff is throwing large numbers out of employment. This is a tariff put on recently by America, the result of which is that it is shutting British manufacturers out of its market altogether. Cablegrams inform us that the tin-plate industry in England is practically destroyed by it, and that Lancashire manufacturers will be greatly affected by it. "We are also told that there was a decrease of £2,380,000 in the exports of Great j Brttain for the past month, This is a terribly large shrinkage, but what else could be expected ? All the world is practically Protectionist except Englaud, and she must consequently suffer. This is not good for us. If there is a want of employment and destitution in England the demand for our wheat and mutton will not be so great, and consequently we are bound to lose by it. Let us hope,

however, that it may lead England to form a Custom-honse Federation with her colonies, and give us protection against other countries.