PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 451 



Thru there are the local rates, which exceed in total amount the direct imposts 

 of the central authorities. Taken altogether, the holders of real property in 

 Australasia pay perhaps seven millions per annum in rates and taxes. But the 

 rates are not everywhere levied on the unimproved or ground values. In some 

 Colonies, or localities in Colonies, they are — notably in Queensland and parts of 

 New Zealand and New South Wales. But the land taxes, except the Tasmanian, 

 fall upon the unimproved value, and most of them are what the rates are not, 

 policy taxes, imposed with several objects, but with one object overshadowing all 

 others. 



Here is an Australian official summary of the land taxes and their yields : — 



Commonwealth. — 500?. exemption, then a graduated scale,' starting at a 

 penny, 5,000?. to 15,000?. unimproved value, and rising to 6d. on estates 

 of 75,000?. and above, with an extra tax in all cases without exemption for 

 absentees. 



New South Wales. — Uniform rate of Id. in 1?. on unimproved value. 

 Victoria. — Uniform rate of U per cent, on capital value, with 50 per 

 cent, increase on absentees. (A Bill has lately been under consideration for 

 a graduated tax on unimproved values starting at ^d. in 11. from 500?. to 

 2,500?., gradually rising until it amounts to 3d. on estates valued at 80,000?. 

 and upwards.) 



South Australia. — Graduated tax of ^d. in 1?. to 5,000?. and lc?. above 

 5,000?. on unimproved value — absentees 20 per cent, increase. 



Western Australia. — Uniform Id. in 1?. on unimproved value of land net 

 improved ; ^d. in 1?. on unimproved value of land where improved ; absentees 

 50 per cent, increase. 



Tasmania. — Graduated tax of ^d. in 1?. on total capital value to 5,000?., 

 rising to Id. in 1?. on 80,000?. and over. 



New Zealand. — Uniform tax of lr?. in 1?. on unimproved value, and 

 additional graduated tax of ~d. from 5,000?. to 7,000?., rising till it amounts 

 to 2?. 10s. per cent, on estates over 200,000?. ; absentees 50 per cent, increase. 

 These are the various taxing measures in existence and proposed. In 

 1908-09 the tax collected in New Zealand yielded 604,900?., and in the 

 Commonwealth States as follows : — 



£ 



New South Wales 80,794 



Victoria 85,559 



South Australia 92,158 



Western Australia 33,120 



Tasmania 59,651 



Total .€351,282 



In 1909-10 the yield of the State land taxes in Australia fell to about 

 ' 330,000?. In 1910-11 the New Zealand tax produced 629,000?. 

 As already indicated, the main though not the sole object of most of the 

 land taxes has been to stimulate the subdivision of land. To how great an 

 extent land monopoly held New Zealand and Australia in its grip twenty years 

 ago may be indicated in a single sentence. At that time in the four Colonies of 

 New South Wales, Victoria, New Zealand, and South Australia about 2,100 pro- 

 prietors (companies or persons) held about 43,000,000 acres of land in freehold. 

 A great deal of this was good iand ; much of it very good. Very little of it was 

 utterly bad land. Most of it was well placed, so as to be accessible for settle- 

 ment. But in the main it was occupied for grazing ; and purely pastoral occupa- 

 tion in Australasia means population of the scantiest kind. This differentiates 

 the large holdings of the Antipodes from the landlord and tenant system of 

 England. In England you have what to colonial eyes seems a numerous rural 

 population. On the great pastoral estates of Australasia the population is of 

 cattle and sheep. I am speaking now of freeholds, and not of the even varter 

 pastoral tracts held on lease or under grazing licence from the Crown. Most of 

 the territory now held in this last-mentioned fashion is, to speak frankly, not 

 suited for close settlement. Moreover, where it is fit for any sort of subdivision 

 the Colonial Governments have the remedy in their own hands. They can cut the 

 runs up as the leases fall in, Jn some cases they do this. In others they are 



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