Taxation in Nejv Zealand 35 



while the total population of all the boroughs in New Zealand 

 has increased ty 22 per cent. The total population of the 10 coun- 

 ties where the Act was adopted before 1904 has increased by 10 

 per cent, and the total county population of New Zealand has also 

 increased 10 per cent in the same time. So there is no evidence to 

 show that the rating on unimproved value has either advanced or 

 retarded the growth of the districts in which it has been adopted. 1 



5. The tax is not sufficient to stimulate building to any marked 

 extent, but if it were, and a large number of people improved 

 their land for the sake of securing some revenue, and not in re- 

 sponse to increased demand, rents in general would fall, and the 

 owners of improved property would lose as much as they had 

 gained by exemption from taxation, or more. At the same time 

 the propertyless class would gain by the reduction of rents. 



6. The question of equity in the majority of cases has trans- 

 formed itself into a question of the interests of the several classes 

 concerned. There are two classes of owners : those whose unim- 

 proved value is much greater than the value of their improve- 

 ments, and those who own a relatively greater value in improve- 

 ments. Owners of the latter class are well satisfied with the 

 rating on unimproved value, since it has reduced their taxes. 

 Owners of the former class complain when their taxes are mate- 

 rially increased, but since land values have risen almost every- 

 where, most of these people have lost nothing and feel no great 

 burden unless they are holding large quantities of unimproved 

 land. There are many individual cases of hardship, as where a 

 poor person in a borough has a large vegetable garden or a pad- 

 dock for a cow. Some industries, too, such as lumberyards, 

 foundries, and dairies, situated within a borough, have had their 

 taxes greatly increased, and have been compelled to move to the 

 country, where land is cheap. Not infrequently people owning 

 large houses built upon small lots have had their taxes reduced, 

 while some of their poorer neighbors have paid more. As a rule, 

 however, a large house is built upon a large piece of land and a 

 small house upon a small allotment. Moreover, rich people as a 

 rule own more unimproved land- than poor people. Therefore 



'Census of 1006. 



283 



V 



