COUNTY GOVERNMENT-A PLE FOR UNION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1462, 21 August 1883, Page 2

COUNTY GOVERNMENT-A PLE FOR UNION.

r'~\ To: ;i rHlf Editor. y Sir,—Whatever "may -be the ultimate outcome of last' Wednesday/ night's : meetihgVit d6e's™tseem out of place to urga upon the settlers of th&North County-that the evils which 1 are complained of may, by the!; success of the promoters, be changed in -their form, but in ho sensible degree diminished nor touched .in the living root out grpw, : and out of' which' many: mote; must.iyet iim-. doubtedly- spring:;—while ; that jvery 'Success will, it;isJcontended;ijftd;\ r 'wi% Icertainiy. strong>show of into force; ne\v'eyils,.in the dissipation. I and enfeebling of ad«6ibißtrativep6w'6r. • Moreover, it appears, to me-thapbe mere destruction'.of the machine of County Gfbyerhrrfent has itfdjfcgreb p$ wantonness about it, whealtis.rteithfir accompanied nor preceeded byiahy just, br'careful considei-fttibnof the-queafcion f' How far'is it the cause of andrespoh-

Bible for the evils complained off . '. ', Rseems'tp meolear that the evils complained of originate, not with the County iCouncil, but with the Colonial. Legislature and the Colonial Executive. : I propose- to consider iii-this • letter one point only,' and in doing so to guard myself, by; premising that, in my ,re-.! marks T do hot include the owners of lands held unproductive, acquired';for ipeculati'vo or \ other i purposes jhan actiial.occupatiohandu.se. I The first of evil lies in the natureof the, Property Tax as here imposed. lam n6tproposiug,tb.. condemn;' this or any [ other tax,i nor. to commend any tax, only to point out ivhaji I believe to be bad in it. People are taxed not 'on the capitalised value of the net income they derive from their land, but on the value of the

land estimated at the caprice of the valuer; or, if we exclude caprice, on a value which has no reference to its present yearly value, but on a suppositious value; based on speculative ideas

Of residential.or suburban and other advantages. The effect is, to take an instance, that A, whose land is only carrying,- say j ■ 5000 sheep, is taxed to nearly an equal amount with B, whose land is carrying 20,000 shoep. Had' the tax been a tax on annual income, the; taxes on A and B must ihaye been; fairly adjusted. • ;• -' : . i When it is borne in mind that this principle is applied to every settler, whether he has ten acres or 20,000 acres, and that the County.and.High-. .way rates are based on this very arbitrary valuation, it is not difficult: to

believe that some rather startlin

results have been developed. ;. Vl v [ Here we have an,evil clearly not caused by the bounty Councilman evil Which had an essential part in the agitation, and which will not be renjoved by the abolition of the County Council.

I Now it will be said, " You must have Property Tax, or souie.othcr tax equal to it." :I take leaveslo dispute this, but concede- it for a moment to point-out that the tsx should be baßed on such a clear principle of-Valuafipyf as shouldat least compel'the.valuat6rs~ ( to some reasonable approach to propor■tipnate equality.:. As the -valuations are at present, the tax-on, districts and on individual , settlers in districts varies,-I-believe, as .in.a ratio from five to; twenty per cent.,. and is utterlyunjust; '.. ' '•::■' |" ■ IBut, as I have.said,l dispute the necessity. There .is something wrong when the public money is invested in valuabletraots of land, and those tracts of larid are shut ,up and kept waste, There is something wrorig.when the National Property remains barren and unoccupied; when men are without work, and land is without men; when thousands upon thousands of menthe tillers of the soil, the woodsmen of; the forests of. the old world—are going to increase by their industry and intelligence the wealth of other lauds; butnone come to add to the wealth; of -New; Zealand. There is something wrong when Ministers lay great burdens on us to build railways which inj themselves become fresh burdens, and refuse to male accessible to the pepple the lands which contain, the treasures of national wealth.

If a settler weit upon 2000 acvesof bush land and spent nothing in clearing bush and swing grass seed, in fencing or in stock, but : contracted & large debt to make tramways across his' run in all directions, the result' would be bankruptcy. :|V If we/as a colony, choose to add debt to debt in railway making without any corresponding addition to our population or development of our land the natural result is a Property TaxV .the sure result will be greater taxation.'. ■;{ ■•'

Let me impress, one truth; where, in a colony advanced as this one is, land is abundant, add of excellent quality, and undor-a ; climate of rare adyan : tageoußness,sere must be something excessively wrong: if. population; is not found to occupy the land : and taxes are burdensome. That is our case. Yet we meet in Masterton to Avranglo over an entirely innocent ad-ministrative-machine; to listen to harshjdeclanration and unjust abuse of ])Ublie servants, instead of joining in a cqnipact union, resolved calmly and dispassionately to endeavor to ascer" tain the source and. causes of the ills which oppress our industry, and rob us of the reward of our labor and anxiety. ■, What dragon's T teeth have .been sown among us that w> thus \ fall upon one another? I declare that I believe .uiy whole interests to be indissolubly bound up" with those of my fellow, .settlers—mgh!and low, rich,and'poor.I invite them to share in.ttiis belief, and to bring into, one common associa'tipn the combined forces of men resolute .to extricate themselves from the effects ■ of ah increasingly darfgerouß.policy.L '"■'. , ; . Ilamj&c, ■ '■■': ':.■•.;,? ' •.. : Robert S, Hawkihs. .;"