The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. FRIDAY, JULY 8, 1881.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3908, 8 July 1881, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. FRIDAY, JULY 8, 1881.

The following is Major Atkinson's report upon the Property Tax, in which he shows the result to the revenue from that unpopular imposition:—"The Act has been found upon the whole effective, aud now that its provisions are generally understood, it js admitted throughout the colony that the tax is thoroughly fair in principle, and that it has generally worked satisfactorily. I don't mean to imply by this that direct taxation is palatable, but I venture to say that in no country in the world has direct taxation been accepted more willingly, or paid more readily, than the Property Tax has been by the people of New Zealand. There are, I find, 21,761 freeholders inside boroughs, and 43,055 freeholders on country lands. The total number of freeholders in the colony is 60,658, being somewhat less than the aggregate of freeholders of borough and county lands, because some owners of property hold land under both designations. The committee will, I think, expect me to have some particulars as to the cost of collecting the tax. The total expenditure made for the last year, including outstanding liabilities, but exclusive of Land Tax charges, was £31,000, being made up of the following items:—Cost of valuation, £16,000; salaries, £7,275; preparing tables, £700; miscellaneous, including cost of collection, £7,025. With regard to the valuation, I find it has cost about £3,000 more than the land tax valuation, the valuation under the latter being £13,000, and under the Property Assesment Act, £16,000 • but if the proposals of the Government are agreed to, and this valuation is used by the local bodies as the basis for their rating, the whole of the cost,of this assessment will be saved to the country during the next year, the saving going into the coffers of the local bodies. In fact, if we make one triennial valuation do for both general and local purposes, the cost of it will be so small as not to amount to one per cent, upon the rates and taxes collected. If this suggest tion should be accepted, it would not be fair to charge more than £5000 per annum for the cost of valuation against the property tax, for the three years during which the valuation continues in force; but, admitting that the whole of the introductory expenses and the triennial valuation are to be charged against the property tax, even then the rate per cent, for levying and collecting the tax, supposing it to be combined, at the rate of one penny in the pound for three years, will be very moderate. The estimated cost of the Property Tax Department for the next two years is £12,000. For this year I shall ask for £600, exclusive of liabilities, so that the total cost for three years will not, I think, exceed £44,000; and the total receipts for that period, provided the present rate of one penny in the pound be continued, will certainly reach £860,000, thus making. the total cost of the collection of the tax • & little over 5 per cent, upon the amount actually paid into the Treasury. ' And if a proportionate reduction is made from the triennial valuation on account of the use made of it by the local bodies, it will be seen that the Property Tax can be collected for less than 4 per cent.