460 



The Review ot Reviews. 



June I. 19M. 



tried to induce Parliament to sanction the issuing 

 of a return calling for information of the capital and 

 annual value of land apart from improvements. Par- 

 liament agreed to the issue of a return but struck 

 out the final and most important addition. The 

 Premier then attempted to obtain the infomiation 

 in spite of Parliament, and issued a return in which 

 the landowner was called upon to state the value of 

 his land apart from improvements, but the ques- 

 tions were worded in such an unnecessarily compli- 

 cated way that e\en if they had been authorised 

 by Parliament the j>eop;e would have found it ex- 

 tremely difficult to answer them. For instance the 

 return asked for the " capital value of the perish- 

 able improvements, clearing, fencmg, drainage, 

 planting, laying down in grass, pasture, and all 

 other visible improvements, including such build- 

 ings are necessary for homestead and labourers' 

 cottages, but excluding tenantable buildings," also 

 for the capital value of " tenantable buildings, 

 whether business offices, hall or stables." These 

 absurd and harassing questions were never answered, 

 and only harmed the principle in the eyes of the 

 public. Then came Sir Elliott Lewis's Ministr)- — 

 1899-03 — of which Mr. P. W. Piesse was a member 

 without a portfolio till 1901, when he was trans- 

 lated to the Federal sphere, his death, which hap- 

 pened not long afterwards, being the greatest loss 

 the cause of land value taxation has so far sustained 

 in this State. 



The Propsting Ministry, which followed next, 

 were avowed believers in land value taxation, and 

 their first proposal was for a machinery bill, pro- 

 viding for the taxation of land values apart from 

 improvements. That was passed by the Lower 

 House, but rejected by the Upper. The Propsting 

 Ministry was almost immediately succeeded by the 

 present Evans' Government, which does not pro- 

 fess to have studied the question, but is anxious 

 to get information on the point. There is a pro- 

 nounced feeling in favour of exempting improve- 

 ments from taxa ion in the orchard districts, where 

 land is taxed directly it is improved, and long be- 

 fore it brings in any return. At a recent election 

 for the Legislative "CouncU for the Huon district, 

 where the apple industry reigns supreme, both can- 

 didates were in favour of exempting improvements 

 or they would not have stood a chance of being re- 

 turned. The small farmers are also believed to 

 be largely in favour of exempting their improve- 

 ments from the operation of the land tax, which is 

 really a property tax, inasmuch as both the value of 

 the land and of the improvements is taxed. 

 Members like Mr. W. P. Brownell, who represents 

 an orchard d strict at Franklin, occasionally move 

 resolutions dealing only with the grievance as it 

 affects their particular industry, but there is a grow- 

 ing feeling that a great principle is at stake, and 

 that it should be dealt with in a statesmanlike way. 

 As showing the feeling of the Legislative Assembk 



on the subject at the present time, it may be stated 

 that in October, 1904, on the motion of Mr. G. VV. 

 Burns, Labour member for one of the mining dis- 

 tricts on the West Coast, a resolution was passed 

 by 14 to 12 in favour of amending the system of 

 land taxation with the view of taxing the unim- 

 proved capital value and exempting all improve- 

 ments. While chatting on this subject just after 

 his election to the Upper House, Mr. Propsting told 

 me he inte.ided moving for the appointment of a 

 Commission to enquire into the working of land 

 valine taxation in the States where it has been tried, 

 as was done with very beneficial results some years 

 ago when a Commission enquired into the working 

 of the Torrens' system of conveyance in South Aus- 

 tralia before it was introd.;ced into Tasmania. 



Many of the leading public men of Tasmania, in- 

 cluding some of the members of the present Govern- 

 ment, are fully alive to the terrible evils of land 

 monopoly, and are anxious to devise some scheme 

 by which they may be lessened. Among these are 

 the Minister for Lands and Works (Hon. Alexander 

 Hean) and the Surveyor-General and Secretary for 

 Lands (Mr. E. A. Counsel, F.R.G.S.), both of whom 

 afforded me every information at their disposal on 

 the subject. They are in favour of promoting closer 

 settlement by purchasing big estates, subdividing 

 them, and offering them to bona-fide settlers at 

 reasonable rates. This is a favourite policy in other 

 countries besides Tasmania. Here an Act was 

 passed to enable the Govermnent to purchase 

 esta'.es, but as it was necessary to first obtain the 

 approval of Parliament before an estate could be 

 bought, the delay prevented any satisfactory pur- 

 chase being made. Nor were the blockf recom- 

 mended by the Board satisfactory to the Minister, 

 as they were not on the line of railway. Mr. Hean, 

 therefore, proposes to bring in an amending bill so 

 as to empower the Government to purchase estates 

 without going to Parliament, and he further pro- 

 poses that in future all estates purchased by the 

 State for closer settlement must be on the line of 

 railway so as to act as feeders to the line. 



Another politician who strongly favours the 

 policy of purchasing the big estates is the Hon. W. 

 B. Propsting, M.L.C., to whom I have already re- 

 ferred. He is also in favour of introducing legisla- 

 tion to enable the Government to impose special 

 taxation on the V.D.L. Company, whose share- 

 holders are mostly absentees, and, neither indivi- 

 dually nor collectively, subject to the periodica! pro- 

 bate duties which, in the case of ordinan- indivi- 

 duals, secure at any rate something to the State 

 on the owner's death. Mr. Propsting has long been 

 an advocate of land value taxation — as ardent, per- 

 haps, as a rising solicitor could profitably be^and 

 he has never quite lost the enthusiasm which in- 

 fected all those who were concerned in the initiation 

 of the movement in South Australia many years 

 ago. His latest proposal, however, is neither 



