The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1890

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3656, 7 November 1890, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1890

The Promier of this Colony, who is recognised as the ablest financier throughout the length and breadth of the country, in his address to his constituents, writes as follows : I have had careful calculations made by the Property Tax Department as to the oapilal value of tho unimproved land of the Colony, and this shows that were a valuation taken for the p.upose ot a land tax, it would not amount to more than £12,000,000 on which land tax would be payable. This is without the £SOO or auy other exemption. It is true that the unimproved value of the land is set down, in the last property tax returns, at £75,000, but this includes ail the educational reserves, Crown lands. Native lands, and general reserves, which would undoubtedly have to come off if a land tax worjiimposed, and a farther reduction hog to be made for improvements, whipli it is olear to the Property Tax.D'oparfmont'havc not been correotly valued, owing to tho fact that the values and the owners were only interested in the total 7±? "f tho whole property, and not of the relative proportions of and Improvements, Now, it is clear that, if these figure's are reliable-ami of that I think there is yery little dpubt.-a land tax will not raise anytlung like the amount realized by tho property lax without sorious injustice, if not nun to a largo number of country settlers, for the burden, as I understand a land tax, would tall entirely upon the nominal ownor, tbe mortgagee being freed from tho liability as the owner only of personal property, A land tax on unimproved values, without exceptions, at One penny in tho pound, would not produce more than about £177,000, and of this amount about £50,000 would be contributed by tho boroughs and £IIB,OOO by tho country, but if tho exemption of JBODi given under Sir George Grey a Land Tax Act were allowed, the proceeds pf the tax would not exceed £110,099.

This statomonf, wjl! bo of special interest to settlors in the. Wairarapa who Lave recently been ndvised hy Mr Henry Bunny that it is expedient to raise a million of money, or four tinjeg the amount that Sir Harry Atkinson .eonsjdprs. could be'gbtaippd from a land tax without fjisirossf to settlers. Sit Harry Atkinson declares that his figures are the result of careful calculation, and we can only come to the conclusion that "Mr Bunny's figures p fee outcome of caroloss calculations or pf a Jiapljjigai'4 guess, The tax Mr Bunijy' wpu'ld levy would he 2J per cent on the unimproved oapital value of all the land in the colony, and equal t0 ; 25 per cent on its annual rental, If such a tax were applied a man whose land at its unimproved value was worth LSO per year would have to pay Ll2 "10a per annum to the Colonial

Treasurer, the small farmer, whose property was worth £IOO per.annum, would have to hand over L 25 a year to the State. Such a tax would orce small farmers hy droves into tho Bankruptcy Court, and if would benefit the wealthy landowner. Were a prusbing tax of this kind imposed, the first men tpupoßmb to it would bo' the woakJahd sti'uggljng tap! Let us assume that Dive's,-,witp S property four thousand's year

s surrounded b)-Bmall.farmei'3,wbo3 ; ittle estates uro worth but a hundred li ipunds per annum, • Dives is called tl •jpon to pay a thousand pounds under Mr Bunny's land tax, lie has the V money , and -lie finds it—but hia i neighbors the small farmers oannot : . with equal facility procure' tlie £25 per man whioh *is demanded ( from thein and they are Bold- Up or t have to sell out. Their little proper- 'J ties, .handicapped by a brushing land . tax wouldnot- realize anything like } the money they were formerly worth, -j The twenty five pound tax would , render, a property worth £3OO ! unsaleable at £1.50, and bo the upshot would be that Dives would buy the little property for a song : and recoup himself for his, own big tax by mopping up the small holdings whioh surround. him at a nominal price. This is no fancy picture and we venture to say that it would absolutely -be realised if ever a tax sush as that which Mr-Bunny proposes were levied, Of course suoh a tax will never be imposed because neither tlie speculative Ballanco 'nor tho intrepid StOut in ■ their wildest fights would dare to propose such a monstrosity. The project is so absurd that it is almost painful to see an old 1 politician who once made a reputation, though he was,indebted very much for that to the capacity, of his old chief Sir William Fitzherbert, commit himßfllf to such utter nonseupe. We

have some regard for M: Bunny. for the salfe of" auld lang syne," and do not at all mind his raakiug a 'little capital out of the s Waiuahapa Dailt by misrepresoiitations which could be easily exposed wer&it worth our while to notice them, but' it is simply impossible that he should be allowed to enter Parliament to represent views whiohmeannothing more or less

thin the utter ruin and disaster to every struggling settler in the community. - .' .