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38 J. E. Le Rossigno! and W. D. Stezuart 



enacted, may ultimately bring about the nationalization of land, 

 but surely not until the Dominion has become an industrial na- 

 tion, rather than a pastoral and agricultural community as it is 

 today. Up to the present time the effects of rating on unimproved 

 values have been insignificant. The most notable feature of the 

 system is the shifting of the burden of local taxation from one 

 class of taxpayers to another. It is an interesting phase of the 

 tendency which prevails throughout Australasia toward an equal- 

 ization of wealth by means of a legal transfer of the property of 

 the wealthier classes to the pockets of their poorer neighbors. 

 How far this process will go it is impossible to foretell, but that 

 its ultimate results will be beneficial to the majority of the people 

 is by no means certain. 



Viewing the New Zealand system of taxation as a whole, it is 

 seen to be more like European than American systems in that it 

 derives large revenues from income taxes and stamp duties, 

 sources generally neglected in the United States, except in time 

 of war. No doubt the New Zealand system is well adapted to the 

 conditions of the country, and the only serious criticism that could 

 be made is that too much is taken from the taxpayers and too little 

 returned to the people in the form of social benefits. That the 

 taxpayers' burdens will be reduced does not seem at all likely, but 

 that economy in expenditure will increase the sum total of social 

 benefit may at least be hoped. 



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