170 OUR ENGLISH LAND MUDDLE. 



That — if that principle be accepted, and 

 it is found that absolutely the burden of 

 taxation on English agricultural land is 

 heavier than in most countries, and is, 

 relatively to the benefits conferred on the 

 landowner, enormously greater than in any 

 country which is an agricultural rival of 

 the English farmer — then it is nonsense to 

 talk of the land of England as if it were 

 lightly taxed, and as if the chief thing needed 

 to make it burst out into wheat and fruit 

 is a further range of imposts. 

 I have given in some detail the Australian 

 conditions. To compare them point by point 

 with British conditions is not possible. The 

 direct and indirect burdens on the land in this 

 country are so numerous and so complicated 

 that a comparison of anything but totals is 

 impossible. Even the totals are hard to arrive 

 at, for the imposts that the land pays do not 

 find their way solely to the national exchequer, 

 or even to the main extent. They are largely 

 intercepted by various local bodies, though they 

 have none the less to be paid out of the land's 

 yield. I have, therefore, had to be content 



