THE MORTGAGE TAX.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 6 June 1913, Page 4

THE MORTGAGE TAX.

The Lyttelton Times, in a recent article, challenged the Government vo take steps to remove the mortgage tax from the Statute Book. In tire course of its remarks it .said : ■ "The plain truth is that the abolition of the mortgage tax was never ■ more than a plausible electioneer- ■ in g cry, which no politician with his sense s about JMm ever had any in- ; tention of carrying into effect. To begin with, no one has yet put forward any_ sane reason why land which is mortgaged should* be . exempt from taxation any more than land which is unmortgaged. . They both paid the old property tax, which for year s was the foundation of unref owned Conservative fi- ; nance." The Lyttelton Times, like a great many other theorists, evidently" labours under the delusion that it is the land that is taxed. A s a matter of fact the land, being inanimate, pays no taxation. It is the individual Jvho pays it every time. The occupier of a section who is burdened with taxation on his mortgage as well a s interest, lias a hard row to hoe. -Would it-, not be more in accordance with the. democratic sentiment to make the man who advances money on mortgage pay the tax oil his income, rather than expect the tenant to pay it pn the land that he does not own? If a tax 1 on, mortgage s is right, vrliy are not Crown tenants expected" to pay it when they receive a-drances from the Advances to Settlers Depart: Went?