THE PROPERTY-TAX.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 2815, 29 July 1890, Page 2

THE PROPERTY-TAX.

i ■« ' TO 'lIIK KI'ITOII. ; Sm, —" Honesty," in :i letter in your issue 1 of l!ih tilth imt. takes inc. to task in respect ' to Mr JJryco and the Property-tax. Admitting that Mr Bryce staled 'lie was dis- ! |>nscil to support tin* abolition of tin; 1 obnoxious tax, if the desired result could be ' reached by reduction in expenditure. ! Now tliat little "il " is wliere the rub conies in. To my mind it is of [ very little use of iinv one tolling us that lie would do this and that, "if only." This surely should not be sufficient for thinking ! and patriotic men. X'o ! J. say we need ' men who are willing, able, and determined tha* not only the Property-tax but also tlie customs duties must and shall go. These | and our iniquitous land laws are the ruin \ of this highly favoured country. A country the most genial, healthy and prolilic in the world, but alas it is teeming with sutt'or- ; ing and discontentment fioin one end of the I land to the other. Our population is 1 leaving us by thousaniis, and why should 1 such be the case '! It cannot altogether be, because of our high debt, for mist of this ' has been spent upon reproductive works, ' and to a great extent we have value for our money. It is not as if the money had been 1 wasted upon ruinous anil desolating wars. ' Xo I again repeat it is because of our un--1 just land laws. Nationalize the land, by so doing our abnormal Civil .Service system 1 would be curtailed to an enormous extent, and we should employ only those who are ' required for the absolute convenience of the public. Land in the city of Auckland is at least eight to ten times higher in value than it is in the city of London, reckoning 1 on a population basis. This to my mind ' ! is a startling and portentious fact, and to any reflective mind must point out that these high land values are the fundamental cause of our severe commercial depression. Land and labour being the only source of wealth, these must of necessity be exported to pay the rents on these very excessive land values, liy adopting the single tax on unimproveJ land values, the pro-perty-tax, and a large portion of the Ous- , turns duties, could be dispensed with. I ' have no personal feeling either for or ' against Mr Jiryce. .1 would as soon he represented this constituency as any other ] person, so long as he advocated the singletax ; as I said in my former le.tter, it is a change of systems more than a change of ' men that is required. A little story came ' to my ears of a man in Auckland owning five acres of land in the suburbs, which he ' valued at t'oOO. or t.IOO per acre—(what a nice little farm this would buy in the Waikato), this is without any improvements, and, ot course, the .KoOO exemption leavchiin nothing to pay in the shape of pro perty-tax. Xow, with a land tix, he would have to pay to por annum, while a farmer with .WO acres or more in the Waikato would not pay any more, so you see that l the tax would fall with very great ( weight upon those who are holding land at . .speculative values, rather than tiiose who ( are earning their living by cultivating the soil. Mr Withy, Junr., stated that if the \ land were nationalised it would bo the ~ means of saving to the nation fc-1,000,000 \ annually. Think of this sum being left in [ the pockets of those who produce it, and | the real wealth-producers are very few in j number, what an inlluence it would have f upon the prosperity of the country. lam 0 surprised the wealth-producers cannot see | this.—Yours, &c, a PItOUHKSS. j *^ MM * a