OBJECTS OF THE SINGLE TAX.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 3008, 24 October 1891, Page 2

OBJECTS OF THE SINGLE TAX.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I take pleasure in replying to your correspondent "Quidnunc." Pe.'haps I did not make myself quite clear ; 5 per cent, of a land tax on £40,000,000 would produce all the revenue required for carrying on the b.isiness of the country, but of course it would not supply the interest on private loans and rents of citv and land, it would take 15 per cent, on £40,000,000 to pay all these charges. Tho Government would not tax the unimproved value of land to pay private engagements, rents, etc., my object was to show the amount of wealth that each wealth producer had to raise every year to meet all these requirements. The sympathy of that portion of the press that denounces the single tax professes to be for our industrious farmers; now I think I have shown that those persons would not suffer by its imposition but on the contrary would benefit very materially. I am not going into any side issues. lam satisfied if my statement is correct. I quite agree with "Quidnunc" in saying that our early settlers ought to benefit by the value they have given to '.and. I grant that a few of them that were lucky enough to buy city and town lands are in this happy position ; but sad to say, those that went on the land to make a living by their labour, have been and are now being exploited of their wealth to pay the interest on tho abnormal values of city and town lands. I know many settlers that came here in the early days who faced the brunt of the battle and suffered endless discomforts in reclaiming the wilderness, whose position is far from being what it ought to be. There is no increment on their lands, although they are the real wealth producers; all the increment is in small centres where people are crowded together. Why should not our farmers participate in these increased values ? These values could not exist if it were not for the wealth they produce out of the soil ; but alas under our present economic system they are bled to keep them up.—Yours, etc., John Parb.