124 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



occupation for purposes of speculation, rather than the permanent 

 holder or user, needs most to be taxed on excessive profits; 



(3) No system should be adopted which will sterilize, or force 

 the sub-division of, agricultural or nursery land within or adjacent 

 to city boundaries; 



(4) If real estate operators were to be made to carry out their 

 own local improvements before development, they would be making 

 a larger contribution to the public purse than they would under some 

 systems of taxing land values, and, at the same time, would be ham- 

 pered in forcing land on the market before it is ripe for develop- 

 ment; and 



(5) The planning of the land for right use and development 

 should precede any taxation reform, so that the tax would have some 

 relation to the use to which the land was to be put in the same dis- 

 trict; whether, for instance, it would be used for building skyscrapers 

 or workmen's dwellings, or for growing fruit or vegetables. 



With regard to the last of these matters, it has to be noted that 

 a development scheme could permanently define areas for specific 

 purposes, — some for business premises, some for residential purposes 

 and some for market gardening or farming, so as to afford an equit- 

 able basis for taxation. In the case of cultivated areas, a practical 

 arrangement can be included in a scheme either to delimit the land 

 for purposes of cultivation, subject to relief of taxation and the saving 

 of expenditure on local improvements; or to give the relief during 

 occupation as a farm or garden, subject to a heavy increment tax on 

 its transfer for building purposes. Much land, even in cities, cannot 

 be drained or served with water under adequate pressure, except at 

 prohibitive cost, and in many cases it would pay the owner of such 

 land to have its use restricted for purposes of cultivation, if he were 

 taxed on the basis of that use and not on an inflated building value 

 which he was never likely to realize. 



Finally, in regard to taxation as in regard to restrictions on 

 speculation, the aim should be to secure healthy living conditions 

 for the people, to prevent large profits being reaped without being 

 earned, and to secure the application of capital to forms of real de- 

 velopment. 



Defects of Rural Sanitation 



Land speculation is one of the contributory causes of bad sani- 

 tation in rural suburbs of cities, and, both in these suburbs and in 

 rural districts in general, sanitary conditions need great improvement. 

 There are those who are of the opinion that improvement in sanitation 



