PUZZLES FOR VALUERS UNDER THE LAND TAX ACT.

Waipawa Mail, Volume I, Issue 11, 19 October 1878, Page 3

PUZZLES FOR VALUERS UNDER THE LAND TAX ACT.

We clip the following fr#m the New Zealand Times: Two farms, both are ploughed laud in fallow. One has been ploughed six times, and six white crops takeu off it, without manure having been put on the ground. The other lias only just been cleared and ploughed for the first time. One will produce say 40 bushels, the other 14 bushels of oats to the acre. In the eye of the valuer they must be of the same value. Are both equally able to pay the same tax ? Again, a man has three ac res of forest near his house. He chops down the timber and sells it as firewood. The valuer contends that the land is improved because it will carry more stock. A purchaser would probably consider that a great injury had been done to the estate, and one that could not be remedied. Who is right ? A farmer has buildings, stock, and fences all swept off by a fire. His neighbour suffers no such loss ; yet brtth are called upon and held to be equally able to bear the same tax. A monied man and a poor man buy land. Both are held equally able to pay land tax, although one dwells in a cabin and the other in a mansion. This attempt to upset the great principle that every man shall lie taxed according to his ability to bear it will no doubt be all to the advantage of a man with money who can afford to improve his property. The settler of small means will have o pay equal land tax, and struggle on.