The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-03-12
NEW zEALAND'S
SINGLE TAX.
One Country Where it Is in Ae-
tive Operation.
Our Consul Says Its Success
Has Been Proved.
FIRST LAW PASSED
During a Period, of Deep De-
preston in 81.
Now it Is Nearly the Only Pros
porous Land on the Globe.

ROIOu6 Aduu OA Gu0 O1OUOO
San Francisco, March 12.-John D. Con-
molly is consul to New Zealand, the land
that single-taxers point to their object
lesson He was appointed by President
Cleveland in his first term. He was not
displaced by Harrison and was reappoint-
ed by Cleveland. He has, therefore, been
in position during all the period that has
seen the adoption of that system of taxa
ton which makes the nearest approach
to that advocated by Henry George.
Mr.. Connolly has watched the move
ment, with interest and in his report Of
April, 1894, he records his observations
and conclusions concerning its operations
and effects. That report so quickened the
interest in the subject that his time and
energy have been severely taxed in re-
spending to a deluge of inquiries from
prospective immigrants, social reformerS
terested.
Not only that. but the. department. at
liar strain, insomuch that it was forced
to call upon Mr.. Connolly for a supple-
and carrying his observations on the
same lines down to the present time. This
report has just been received and pub
lished by the treasury department. It
contains much matter of much interest,
lures of five states, including California
are considering amendments to the con-
stitution looking to the adoption of the
The policy in New Zealand was inaugu-
premier in 1891 He was man of great
ability and hrmneSS and succeeded in
winning public confidence to such an ex-
tent that. as Mr.. Connolly says, any
measure that he proposed was invariably
act introduced through a SERIES of years
of the severest Industrial depression, sue
ceeding a period of wild speculation due
to the extravagant and wasteful expendi-
ture of millions of money in building rail-
roads and other improvements for which
her lam md md for hi oh
the time had not come.
BY the act of 1891 ali personal property
and some improvements were exempted
from taxation. Two years later the act
! was amended exempting all improve
mentS. In this way a change in the in
cidents of taxation was effected from
land. personal property and improvement
This change Mr.. Connolly says is now
generally admitted to be a beneficial
suits" and altogether demonstrated the
wisdom of aboIishing the improvement
Referring to the manner in which this
legislation was at first received he says:
expected, a cry of alarm went up, and this
| class of legislat ion was condemned far
English, and those who favored such laws
| We're DENOUNCED as socialists and
| pie adhered to their settled policy, and
| the hand of the clock has not been turned
back yet-the course of legislation still
| goes on.
And further on he says:
| ginning to realize the beneficial effects
| of the new era that had been inaugurated
few years back and are becoming rec
onciled to the inovations they were wont
| to condemn heretofore.
| The wisdom Of the alteration in the in
I cidence of taxation from land and per-
now been fully demonstrated.
Both the press and the people seem
has taken some time for the wealthy and
| well-to-do generally to cease their oppo-
| sition to the new conditions.
| Labor is relieved from taxation, except
| in the matter of customs duties. toward
which all have to contribute.
| tax is now popular; it is accepted in lieu
! of the property tax; it is a success.
Speaking Of the beneficial effects of this
With the abolition of the property and
| improvement tax for state purposes i'm
| prOvements have improved very largely
! all over the colony.
That the Legislative innovations of the
| immediate past have shocked the sensi-
| bilities of a large number of well-to-do
| colonists is unqueStiOnably true, but at
| the same time. as against any inconven-
! fence they may have experienced this
| account. there is the fact of increased
| prosperity in nearly every branch of trade
| and Industrial life throughout the coun-
| try, farm products are fetching satisfac-
| tory prices, manufacturing Industries are
running full time and paying good wages
and fair interest on the capital invested.
| labor is remuneratively employed. interest
| on money has fallen from and per
cent to and per cent (this of itself is
sufficient to prove that money is abund-
| anti. Millions of English capital are
| flowing for the development of the gold
| fields of the colony and the credit of the
country at no period of its history stood
so high on the English market as it does
| today.
1 may also mention that through the
| genuine encouragement given by the gov
| eminent to the Small-farmer class the
| waste lands of the country are being rap
| idly taken up wherever land is found
| suitable for farming or grazing purposes.
| John Balance did not live to see the
| beneficial results of the legislation which
| he inaugurated. but his membory is held
| in grateful remembrance, and the work he
| followers, though not with that force and
| ability that he would have brought to its
| execution.
The recent legislation is more distinctly
| it. Consul Connolly in speaking of the
new local bodies rating act on unim-
| proved values, passed July 10, 1885," the
| last revenue act of the colony, says: This
| act should gladden. the heart of the aver
| age tSingle-taxer' for the reason that 1t
| goes long way in that direction"
| In his official report he pays the single
| takers the compliment of attrfbuting to
| their persistent and well-directed efforts
/ the enactment of this important measure
| saying:
| There are a large number of single-tax
| advocates in the colony who have been
| for a considerable time endeavoring to
| get some such measure passed as a sort
| of entering wedge or prelude to a more
| comprehensive scheme of single tax, and
| persistent advocacy the passage of this
! measure is mainly attributed.
Vote Down Intern ational BIN etallism
| Boston March 1.-THE Boston Asso-
| oiatad Toard IF Trade oOronoSad Of ran