WORKING FARMERS AND THE NEW TAXATION SCHEME.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3077, 5 April 1892, Page 2

WORKING FARMERS AND THE NEW TAXATION SCHEME.

TO THK KDITOH. Silt, —Having read the article appearing under the above heading in the Now Zealand Farmer for March, and also vour criticism thereon in your issue of the 29th nit, we should like to ask you a few questions hearing upon the matter :—

1. You assume that the new taxation scheme—to quote your own words—proposes that " their (the settlers') land should bear the whole burden of taxation required in this heavily-taxed country," and state that "the trade and labour organisations of the cities will have the votes, whilst the poor hatd-working settler will pay the taxes." As a matter of fact, does the now scheme, aR you would thus seem to infer, exempt from taxation the unimproved value of town and suburban lands?

2. Under our Customs tariff, the farmer has to buy the bulk of his goods in a protected market, while he must sell the whole of his produce in a free trade market. Is he not thus placed at a great disadvantage as compared with the city labourers, to protict whom the Customs duties were imposed ?

3. In South Australia a tax of id in the £ on the unimproved value of all land—no exemptions being allowed—has been in force for the past seven years ; yet during that time not a single public protest has been made againstit. In fa?t the strongest advocates of the land tax in S onth Australia are the small farmers, and the Parliamentary Representatives of this class have twice passed a Bill in the Lower House to treble this tax, but the Upper House, representing the large land owners and speculators, has twice shelved the Bill. In what essential respects do the small farmers of New Zealand differ from the same class in South Australia ?

4. Supposing that tin or fifteen years ago such a land tax had been in operation in the Waikato as would have deprived the land of all inflated speculative and prospective values so that the settler could have obtained the land at a price based upon the actual returns which it would givn for the lahnur and capital expended upon it, would not most of the farmers he much better off than they are at the present time?

5. In the Auckland ".Star," of a recent date, it was shown that under the revenue system, since the amount raised by tho customs duties is roughly speaking distributed according to population, the small settler pays on the average something like 12s 7d per while the large land owner pays only 31 per acre. Can we suppose that anv system of direct taxation would fall with more crushing weight upon the small settler?

fi. In the cam of sett'ers with grown np sons and daughters requiring land on which to settle, is it not to th"ir interest that they should bo able to obtain tho land at its trim value for use? By what means, if not by a land tax, can fictitious speculative values be eliminated, and the farmer be enahled to get the land at its true using value 1 It was with this object in view— i.3., to deprive land of its inflated speculative values—that the Woodsidn Fanners' Club of South Australia, consisting solely of bona fide land-owners, proposed as early as '47 the imposition of a tax upon unimproved land values. 7. In conclusion, will you kindly explain the fact that in the United States, where the bulk of the revenue is raised from Customs duties, the firmer is admitted on all hands to be the most, impoverished class in the community, the farm lands of the Western St-it°s being almost " sunk out of sight " under mortgage indebtedness. In proof of this, we may quote the revo't of the American Farmers' Alliance against indirect taxation, showing that, " with their shrewd caoacity f"r drawing correct conclusions," they realise the fact that such taxation is solely in the interest of " the trade and labour organisations of the cities." and demand —as absolutely essential to their own interest —a tax noon the unimproved value of all land.—We are, &(\, John and William Wapstraw. P.,"J.—We have had forty years' experience as settlors.