The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-08-04

NJ MEOf7AN1O.
restricted franchise and the plural
voting. and the people who went out
in the early DAYS. those who nad
money. formed a government ana
sold the land to themselves Some OF
them gobbled up a great deal more OF
il than they could do anything with.
ran il with a few sheep till more peo-
pie came out from the old land. from
Australia and elsewhere. and every
normal man who came into the coun-
try added to the land values. and the
position they had arrived at IN the
nineties was that population was flee
ing from New Zealand. although they
had just bou half a million people
Their Registrar kept a very exact re-
cord of births and deaths of de-
partures and arrivals by steamers. and
when the census was ken
1883 and 1890 it was found that there
was a large shortage in the population
that the Registrar could not account
for. and hat was largely accounted
for by the steamers taking away more
than their complement and hiding
them on board. Just think of New
Zealand. with a soil and climate and
fertility equal to those Of Great Bri-
tain. and half a million of people
could not find the opportunity OF
making a decent living. That was
due to the fact that all the best avail
few individuals who were holding ii
up fora rise in price against their fell
lows.
Land Value Taxation.
The Government that was returned
ia the 1873 election came in with a
pledge to institute land value taxa
ton, and they succeeded in passing
their measure, and hardly a Parlia-
| ment had come and gone since 1896
that had not in some form increased
the tax upon land values. The Con-
sentative party OF that day denounced
it, but one member OF that party who
| was now the Prime Minister OF New
! Zealand during either his first OF sec
| ond session in Office made at least a
pretenSe OF increasing the graduated
tax upon land values. and in a speech
quite recently at he claim
| ed that the alteration he had made
had produced an extra 100000 a year
in land value taxation. Tina was the
tribute he was paying to the growing
sense and sentiment of the people II
favor of securing some return for
the people from a source that had
hitherto been passing it into the hands
of a few individuals. They started
that tax by putting Id in the f on al
land values from $500 upwards. They
made an exemption up to t5e0-fool-
ishly. he thOught-but the idea tC
some extent was that the amount wa:
so small hat it did not matter much
collecting on sums up to $500 They
started with a penny from 1900. anC
at $4,000 they started a small gradu
ated tax in addition. which they col
lected all round. That graduated tai
came up in the case Of estates O
f3nA nm ood oxnr TO = = "a 81 III
with the penny all round and 5 SIS
on the capital value the tax came III
to 6 SD in the 4, and in the case o
absentee owners they charged fit.
per cent. extra. (Applause.) From
the time that hat charge a beer
made New Zealand, which had bee,
for a number Of years in a state 0
depression. When her population ha,
been fleeing from her acrosS to Aus
tralia and America, started forwart
on the Dad to prosperity, and almOS
Without a break it had gone on in
creasing in prosperity ever since.
Reason Fer Prosperity.
His opinion was that the steady up
ward prosperity of the Dominion ha,
been considerably promoted by thei
system of taxing land values. Thes
{ land taxes brought in f72S, 000 a year
{ which was thirteen per cent. of thei
! lDld1 ldAdllDH- lncy Sol tfbL,UUU, .
l 8 "a per cent, from income tax. ]
[ we took these figures in the sam
ratio in this country we would be, h
! was quite satisfied. in a more prosper
/, Gus condition today. t~Applause.) Thei
. total taxation was about " million
8 and their total population was abou
I a million. Some people, looking q
. the figures. would say. What
e heavily taxed country New Zealan
must be- and they it wit
0 the taxation here. per head of tn
population, much to the detriment c
. ew Zealand. But we had to remem
+ Der that in New Zealand they pai
out of that taxation a great man
G things which we had to pay out c
I local taKation-fOr m tn
I police. education. asylums. &c, an
half of the ordinary hospitals an
s charitable aid Institutions Il want,
e continued Mr.. FOwlds, Ito put SD
cial stress IN the value of land taxa
e ton III promoting the prosperity {