474. TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 
living. The basic wage in Melbourne of 7s. per diem prescribed in 1907 remained 
unaltered until judgment was given in 1913 in the Gas Kmployees’ case, when 
evidence as to the investigations made by the Commonwealth Statistician as to 
cost of living was first brought before the Court, and when the basic wage was 
increased to 8s. In Sydney, Mr. Justice Heydon conducted an exhaustive 
judicial inquiry towards the end of the year 1913 with a view to furnishing 
an authoritative declaration as to the basic wage, and also as to ascertaining 
some method of raising or lowering it with the rise or fall in the cost of living. 
His Honour concluded that the living wage for two parents and two dependent 
children (under fourteen years of age) was 48s. per week. 
The results of the statistician’s investigations have now been adopted by 
industrial tribunals throughout the Commonwealth. The data are obtained 
mainly from two sources, viz., (a) householders’ budgets, and (6) returns of 
retail prices and house-rents from dealers and agents in selected towns. The 
object of the former class of inquiries is to establish from time to time the 
actual expenditure on living and variations in standards, and of the latter, to 
furnish periodically index numbers indicating variations in the cost of living 
(i.e., in the purchasing power of money), both in regard to point of time and 
as between different localities. A novel and rigorous, though simple, method 
of technique has been adopted and was explained in the paper. 
6. Land Taxation in Australia. By G. A. McKay. 
The history of land taxation in Australia was briefly narrated, and the 
existing systems of land taxation, Commonwealth, State, and Municipal, shortly 
described. : 
The writer pointed out that though the primary object of land taxation 
has been to secure revenue for the purposes of Government, there was also in 
some cases a secondary object, viz., to further some economic or social end of 
Jocal or national advantage. The primary object, as a rule, dictated the weight 
of the impost; the secondary, the character of the tax, and its scope. 
The main justification for taxing land, as part of a general scheme of taxa- 
tion, lies in the financial needs of Commonwealth, States, and Local Governing 
bodies. 
The Commonwealth has few sources of revenue, but great financial needs, 
corresponding to national burdens. It has assumed responsibility for the 
defence of Australia by land and sea. This has involved the provision of the 
beginnings of a navy, and the establishment of a scheme of universal military 
training. 
It has accepted the obligation to provide old-age and invalidity pensions, 
and a maternity bonus. 
All these responsibilities involve large recurring expenditure, and though 
some payments have been made out of loan money, the fact that interest has 
to be paid on a growing public debt cannot be ignored. 
The several State Governments are responsible for the management of all 
-public affairs, excepting those devolving on the Commonwealth under its 
Constitution. The State obligations include public instruction, the mainten- 
ance of public order through the judiciary and the police, and the construction, 
control and management of railways, tramways, and other public works, which 
are outside the scope of municipal powers. Much of this expenditure is not 
fully reproductive, and deficiencies in revenue must be met by taxation. 
Municipalities and other local authorities with similar powers undertake the 
construction, maintenance, and control of public works, the benefit of which 
is purely local. 
All these authorities, Commonwealth, State, and Municipal, have inde- 
pendent powers of taxation, and all have recourse to land as one of the main 
sources of revenue. 
The economic and social reasons for land taxation are included in two main 
branches—one the desire to make a breach in land monopoly, the other to ensure 
that land, the foundation of most national assets, is put to its best use from 
a national point of view. we 
The history of land monopoly was traced to early legislative and administra- 
