How to Hark Hack.

The question here arose, admitting the object in view to be a desirable one, how could they hark hack? Here was the great difficulty of the whole thing. (A voice: "Hear, hear.") He did not intend to attempt to minimise the difficulty and it was, no doubt, a very serious one. It was a difficult knot to untie; but it must be untied or the deluge would come. This cumulative evil could not go on from generation to generation without resulting in a catastrophe. The problem had to be solved, and he would tell them his proposal. In the first place a ground rent assessment should be made throughout New Zealand, in the towns as well as in the country districts, and, secondly, all the local rates should at once be charged upon that ground rent value. This would mean the exemption of all improvements from the operations of the local rates, and this was manifestly an equitable proposal. (Applause.) It was even now being demanded by a number of local bodies who were sending round circulars asking others for assistance in giving effect to the suggestion. The next step would be to secure the gradual transference of all colonial taxation to the ground rent value of the land; an exchange of the present taxation for a tax upon ground rental values. The land-owners paid at the present time a tax of Id in the £ upon the selling value of their land. This tax was equivalent to a tax of 2s in the £ upon the ground rental value, so they were now paying a tax of 2s in the £ upon the ground rental value of the whole of New Zealand. This 2s should be gradually increased over a period of years until it was equivalent to 20s in the £. Let them say for the sake of argument that the period indicated should be 18 years. One shilling would be equal to ½d in the £ upon the selling value. Next year let an additional Is be put on, and the next year again still another, until at the end of eighteen years 18s was added. This, added to the 2s already in force, would take up the whole of the annual ground rental value—20s in the £1. This would be equivalent to increasing the present tax by one halfpenny each year for eighteen years. This proposal would exempt all improvements from taxation. Mr. Vaile had evidently misapprehended him on that point. He thought it was intended to touch improvements. It was not sufficient to say the scheme was wrong, without pointing out in what way.