The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 29
Share of Land Fund
Share of Land Fund.
Mr. Macandrew's
proposal in the House of an equal acreage contribution from the public land sales throughout the Colony, appears to me to meet the justice of the case much better. I do not pretend to fix the rate per acre of the contribution. I think he suggested 2s. 6d. an acre. The Colonial Treasurer has estimated the probable receipts from land sales throughout New Zealand at £743,000 for the financial year 1877-78. In this estimate he sets down the receipts in Canterbury at only £300,000; but they promise to be much larger. That sum only represents a sale of 150,000 acres. The land sales "during the last twelve months" reckoning from the end of August—which includes two months of the financial year—amounted to 323,720 acres. The year's sales are likely to amount to at least 500,000 acres, Half-a-crown an acre would thus yield £62,500 from Canterbury alone. I have no means of checking Major Atkinson's estimates of receipts in the other Land districts. "Errors and omissions excepted," however, I will take his estimate in all but Canterbury, and deduce the acreage from what I suppose to be the price. The result will, if I am right in the prices to be paid elsewhere than in Canterbury, be as follows:—District. | Estimated Receipts. | Price per Acre. | Acres Sold. | Contribution at 2s. 6d. Per Acre. | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
£ | £ | s. | d. | £ | ||
Auckland | 120,000 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 240,000 | 30,000 |
Taranaki | 23,000 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 46,000 | 5,750 |
Wellington | 60,000 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 60.000 | 7,500 |
Hawke's Bay | 15,000 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 30,000 | 3,750 |
Nelson | 10,000 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 20,000 | 2,500 |
Marlborough | 5,000 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 10,000 | 1,250 |
Canterbury | 1,000,000 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 500,000 | 62,500 |
Westland | 10,000 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 10,000 | 1,250 |
Otago | 200,000 | 1 | 10 | 0 | 133,000 | 16.625 |
Totals £ | 1,443,000 | £1 | 7 | 6 | 1,019,000 | £131,125 |
Even supposing the Treasurer's estimate not to be exceeded, the quantity sold in Canterbury would be 150,000 acres—the total sold in the whole Colony 099,000 acres; Canterbury's contribution, £18,750, and the total contribution, £37,375. This resource would certainly furnish £100,000 this year, if not a great deal more.
But there is another excellent and perfectly equitable resource, incase those already proposed should not be sufficient: one which may, indeed, be very fairly had recourse to for public revenue, even in the absence of any exigency.
Persons who rent or buy land from the Government, do contribute in doing so, to the Land Revenue, and thus enable immigration and public works to be carried on in the District where the land is situated, or provide a fund for some public purpose. Persons who rent or buy land from the Natives d not contribute in doing so, either to the Land Fund, or to the Ordinary Revenue of the Colony, or of any District whatsoever, and provide no fund for any public purpose of any kind. They are protected by the Government in their legal bargains, and pay nothing whatever in return for that protection. Without the Government, to which their transaction contributes nothing, the transaction would be invalid, and their titles worthless.
I, therefore, propose to raise Taxes on Purchases or Leases of Land from the Natives.
In order to make known the justice of this proposal, I must give a chapter in the