28 
Taxation on Land. 
owners, occupiers, and labourers use to obtain a livelihood. 
It is within the mark to say that every pound which is paid as 
rent throughout the country is taxed locally and imperially to 
the extent of four shillings, or 20 per cent. ; and rent, which is 
the owner’s income, is thus reduced to the extent of one-fifth by 
taxation ; whilst, in addition to this, no deductions are allowed 
from the property tax to reduce the gross to net income, in the 
case of income from land, whereas it is allowed for trade. On 
the other hand, incomes from professions, trade, and personal 
property, are taxed only for imperial purposes now at 6d. in 
the pound, and pay nothing whatever to the poor rate except 
on the rent of houses and premises occupied ; and as many 
incomes of 1,000b a year are either made or enjoyed on premises 
rated at 50b, with a payment of 61. 5 s. to the union, which 
is 1 \d. in the pound on such incomes, it follows that the total 
which they pay locally and imperially is only 7 ^d. in the pound, 
as against the 4s. in the pound paid in respect of land. 
If these conclusions are sound, or even partially sound, it is 
a very serious matter for agriculture. W e often hear that rents 
must still comedown — perhaps they must ; but would not owners 
be in a better position to grant such further reductions out of 
their diminishing incomes if they were relieved of a portion of the 
20 per cent, which they now pay for taxes ? Landlords’ incomes 
are so diminished that numbers of them cannot afford to live 
on their estates ; farmers, many of them, have reached, and others 
are approaching bankruptcy; labourers are insufficiently em- 
ployed ; and this, in an appreciable measure, is brought about by 
the inequality and injustice of the present system of taxation. The 
same defects have no doubt materially contributed to the extinc- 
tion of the old yeoman farmers who, being occupiers and owners, 
have had to bear the whole of the 20 per cent, burden ; and it 
is difficult to conceive how others are to be reared to take their 
place, by the aid of the legislature, with such a load to bear. If 
a skilled workman can earn from 30s. to 40s. a week, and pay 
about 20s. a year to the poor rate in respect of the house he 
occupies, it is no inducement to him to change his occupation 
for small ownership if he finds that, directly he steps upon the 
land, his burden of taxation is multiplied by eight on a similar 
income. What special benefits does the poor rate confer upon 
farmers, beyond those conferred upon tradesmen and private resi- 
dents, that its operation should be so grossly unequal ? It pro- 
vides for poor relief, police, highway, sanitary, and education ex- 
penses, the benefit from which accrues to all classes alike, and 
the farmer has no monopoly. It is not an inherited burden on 
land, more than upon that share of personalty, which has become 
