12 J. E. Le Rossignol and W. D. Stewart 



by increasing the tax on property in general, which would have 

 aroused a storm of opposition. But, whether rightly or not, the 

 property tax was condemned by the small farmers and trades- 

 men, and when, in 1891, these classes got the upper hand, with 

 Ballance, the author of the land tax of 1878, as premier, they 

 repealed the Act of 1879 an< ^ passed the Land and Income As- 

 sessment Act in its stead. 



Behind all the arguments against the property tax was the de- 

 termination of the small proprietors to pay little or nothing in the 

 way of direct taxes, but to make the wealthier people pay all. 

 They also wished to break up the large estates, and in this they 

 were strongly supported by the laboring class, who desired that 

 they or their sons might occupy relatively improved and well- 

 situated land instead of having to endure the hardships of pioneer 

 life in the back blocks. Again, the small proprietors, who were 

 mostly borrowers, wished to get at the money lenders by means 

 of a tax on mortgages. Also, they used the arguments of single- 

 taxers and other theorists in so far as it suited their purpose to 

 do so, although the small farmers, who formed the backbone of 

 the new democracy, were anything but single-taxers. A special 

 tax was levied upon absentee landholders, who were thought to 

 be a particularly undesirable class of citizens, and the income tax 

 was designed to tax the wealthy mercantile, manufacturing, and 

 professional people of the towns. 



The original act 1 has been amended from time to time. The 

 Consolidation Act of 1900 is now in force, with later amendments. 

 The most notable features of the Act are the ordinary land tax, 

 including the tax on mortgages on land, the graduated land tax, 

 the tax on absentee owners, the graduated income tax, and the 

 total exemption of small properties and incomes. 



The ordinary land tax is assessed on the unimproved value, 

 that is, the capital value less the value of all improvements. The 

 Act of 189 1 allowed deductions for improvements up to £3,000, 

 but. by the amendment of 1897, the value of all improvements 

 was exempted. The rate is fixed by the annual taxing act. At 



*Land and Income Assessment Act, 1891. 



260 



