The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1879.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 133, 12 April 1879, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1879.

•fr 1 We are glad to notice that the Wellington Chronicle has raised the question of frontage rates. We believe that a frontace valuation would be more advan-

tageous not only to large towns like Wellington, but also to townships like those we have in the Wairarapa, It is

often noticed in country townships that certain owners of building allotments spoil the appearance and retard the progress of a rising place by keeping their land out of the market. If a

frontage rate existed, and such persons had to pay annually upon the value ol their sections, not as grazing but as

building land, they would be indirectly compelled to utilize them for their own and the public benefit, On the other hand persons who, for speculative purposes, turn agricultural holdings into quarter-acre building allotments, would be rather checked in their ventures by the knowledge that the land, when so sub-divided, would be liable to a frontage rate. Our contemporary says that it is one of the most difficult problems that the statesman encounters is to discover a means of taxation based on equality of sacvifice. It is often imagined that this difficulty is met at all events in the system of rating that obtains in the boroughs and counties of New Zealand. Under this scheme a man is supposed to pay pro rata, that is, to be rated according to the actual value of the property which he possesses. Yet. a little inquiry will dis-

closo the'fact that our system of municipal rating, instead of being based on equality of sacrifice, is really founded on gross"'injustice, and'is practically neither more noi* less* than a'taxation of industry. To cite a case, of which there are numerous instances in Wellington, we shall suppose that Brown purchases an allotment of land in tlio city; tlmt he goes to England, and allows his section to remain idle and unimproved; whilst Jones, Robinson, Smith, Ac., the owners of neighboring sections, erect large warehouses on their allotments- Brown's section is enormously increased in value through the industry of his neighbors, They are taxed according to the improved value of their land,' reckoning the building and everything else that has cost them money to obtain, Their taxes compared with his are simply enormous.

In fact, they are fined because they have chosen to be industrious and to develop the resonrces of the place in which their property is. They have , enriched Brown; mayhap they have put thousands of pounds into his pocket, for which he bestows nothing in return either on them or on the Corporation, Now this system is simply a monstrous | piece of injustice. It is a direct and strong inducement to men to grow rich at the expense of their neighbors, and it offers a premium to absenteeism, that unmitigated curse of the colonies, As Wellington affords ii conspicuous example of the crying evils of absenteeism, to her also peculiarly belongs the duty of devising a cure for them. We have given this subject careful attention, and it is our matured opinion that an effectual remedy might be found in a frontage rate. Amongst the many important matters with which Parliament mil have to deal next session, we do not think there is one that is of wider or deeper public concern than this, We commend our suggestion to the Government, in the firm conviction that if acted upon, the results arising from it would be as wide-spread as they ! would be salutary and equitable.