IN CONCLUSION. 281 



only for levying rates (on either site value or 

 improved value as they pleased) for local pur- 

 poses ; and then to decide what proportion of 

 the national revenue the wealth invested in 

 land should contribute, shaping the decision 

 roughly on the principles governing the income 

 tax ; penalizing, perhaps, absentees and those 

 who lock up great areas against use ; treating 

 the very rich investors in urban lands with 

 justice, but without sympathy ; treating as 

 favourably as possible the agricultural land- 

 owner ; exempting altogether the small farmer ; 

 and having a sympathetic care against a harsh 

 incidence of taxes on land held, not in undue 

 proportion, genuinely for sport or for pleasure. 

 There will never be fair land taxation until the 

 present burdens on the land are accurately 

 appraised ; until there is a clear separation of 

 local and national services ; and until the con- 

 tribution of the land to the national exchequer 

 is calculated on the basis of the actual income 

 from the land (with a side thought for the 

 benefits conferred by the community on par- 

 ticular classes of land). When fair land taxa- 

 tion is proposed, I am convinced that it will be 



