CORRESPONDENCE

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10699, 21 August 1912, Page 5

CORRESPONDENCE

TAXATION OF LAND VALUES

(To the Editor Wairarapa Age.)

Sir, —Your leading article of Monday last, in which you criticise the principle of land taxation as advocated by the Hon George Fowlds, shows, on your part, a very limited knowledge of the economic results arising from the taxation of city or country land values. You say that the city landowner would, on the imposition of the tax, immediately pass it on to lis tenant. The tenant in turn would pass it on to the general community, and the landowner would bo little affected by it. This is contrary to the teachings of all economists, and I challenge you to cite a single authority in support of your contention. Indeed, this is one of the few points on which the economists of every school are agreed: viz., that a tax on land va-

lues cannot be passed on to the user or consumer. Lord Lansdowno .mkl his fellow peers in Great Britain had a clearer grasp of this economic fact than you appear to have, when they

risked the very existence of the Hou.se> of Lords in their determination to resist the very mild measures of land value taxation proposed in Lloyd George's famous Budget. The reason why a land tax cannot be passed on by the owner ought to be apparent to anyone who lias given the slightest consideration to the subject. The 'landlord at present collects in rent all lie can get. Tf you put a further fax on land values, it would compel the owner of unused land or partially used land to put it to its most practical use. This would have the same effect as making more land. The more land there is available for use in "a given community, the lower will be the rent paid for it. So that a tax on land values would mean a lower rent than is at present paid, instead of a higher rent as you suggest I).y the landlord passing on the tax to his tenant.—l am, etc.. ' LAND TAXEB.

(Economists teach us that the owner of the land will get .sufficient from the tenant to pay all taxes, he they local or general. Does our correspondent wish us to helieve ihat rents in Masterton are no higher to-day than they were hefore the water-rate was impscd?—Ed. Age.)