Our First Half-Century Part 10

Leasehold tenures are preferred for the remoter lands, and they have the advantage of leaving the settler's capital free for the development of his land. In case any should prefer a leasehold tenure in the more closely settled districts, the law now provides for the subst.i.tution of "perpetual leases" for the agricultural farm tenure.

The rapid spread of the p.r.i.c.kly pear in some parts of the State has been a peremptory call for the occupation of the threatened country on any terms. Provision has accordingly been made for p.r.i.c.kly pear selections under conditions of eradicating the pest, the value of the land being a.s.sessed at rates ranging from a sum paid by the Government to the settler in addition to a free gift of the land, to a sum perhaps as high as 1 per acre to be paid by the settler to the Crown, such payments being in annual instalments of one-fifth or one-tenth, and commencing ten or five years respectively after the commencement of the lease, the period of exemption from payment having to be devoted to the task of eradication.

Until 1901 the compet.i.tive principle was general in the selection of Crown lands, but in that year provision was made by a special Act to allot land non-compet.i.tively to bodies of settlers coming from abroad, who naturally desired to be a.s.sured of obtaining land in proximity to each other before pulling up their stakes and migrating to a new sphere of activity. Successive amendments have been made in this law, and, while in its inception it had application only to agricultural homestead selection, it has since been extended to all forms of selection tenure.

The great drought, which ended in 1902, has stamped its mark indelibly upon the land legislation of the State. The earliest cry for relief came from the far West, where the remaining tenancies under the Pastoral Leases Act of 1869 chiefly lay. Large tracts of country had become forfeited, and the Crown tenants, unable to hold on to the remnants of their runs at the rents chargeable under their leases, applied for relief. To meet their case, the Pastoral Leases Act of 1900 was pa.s.sed, which required the reoccupation of the abandoned country at nominal rents, and reduced the rents of the retained country to an extent that secured the reoccupation of 13,000 square miles. In the following year the Pastoral Holdings New Leases Act promised the relief of extended leases to the holders of pastoral country in the rest of the State, where the Act of 1884 operated; but the drought still continuing, a further appeal was made to Parliament, and in the Pastoral Leases Act of 1902 opportunity was given to lessees to secure extensions of leases up to forty-two years according to situation, subject to reapprais.e.m.e.nt of rent and to certain rights of resumption reserved to the Crown. The chief desideratum of the lessees was extended tenures to enable them to finance on more favourable terms and recover from their immense drought losses. In consideration of this concession and the surrender of resumption rights which it involved, the State had to look for increased rentals.

The rea.s.sessments of the rentals under the new leases, however, have not compensated the State for the large concessions made to its tenants.

The Closer Settlement Act of 1906 superseded the Agricultural Lands Purchase Acts, 1894 to 1901. These statutes provide for the acquisition by the Government of private estates for the purpose of subdivision and sale in areas adapted for closer settlement, payments being extended over twenty-five years. The principle is not quite impervious to criticism, for unless great prudence is exercised the acquisition of these large estates has a tendency to raise the value of agricultural land; but a few figures showing the settlement which has taken place furnish convincing proof that the primary object of the Legislature has been achieved, and that rich arable lands, which previously produced nothing but natural gra.s.ses for the sustenance of sheep and cattle, have become the homes of many hundreds of thriving yeomen farmers and the support of numerous rising towns.h.i.+ps. Since the pa.s.sage of the first of these Acts in 1894, a total area of 537,449 acres has been repurchased at a cost of 1,490,489. Of this area 456,742 acres had been surrendered by the former owners at the close of 1908. By the same date 364,334 acres had been selected at an aggregate price of 1,050,864, and 10,677 acres, with the improvements thereon, had realised 70,727 at auction, the purchasing price of the whole area disposed of amounting to 1,144,081. The area remaining in the hands of the Government, after deducting roads and reserves, was 78,781 acres, valued at 264,200, almost entirely consisting of land only recently acquired and not yet offered for settlement. On 31st December last, no less than 1,654 agricultural selectors, the majority with families, and holding among them 1,909 selections, were settled upon what but a few years ago were twenty-six sheep and cattle stations, with a mere handful of employees.

It has been mentioned that the Alienation of Crown Lands Act of 1860 provided for granting to any immigrant who had paid his pa.s.sage-money, or to any other person by whom it had been paid, an 18 land order on arrival, and a further land order for 12 after he had resided two years in the colony. These land orders were made receivable as cash at any Crown land sale, and they led to a large traffic, as the fact that land orders could be bought from immigrants at a discount stimulated the demand for land, especially for town lots. At first these instruments could be bought at very low prices, but after a time the 18 land order had become of the recognised market value of 15 to 16 cash, and could be readily purchased at those prices from agents in Queen-street, Brisbane. But the effect upon land sales revenue alarmed the Government, and after a time they refused to receive land orders as payment in lieu of cash at sales of other than country land. In 1864 an Immigration Act was pa.s.sed providing for the appointment of an Agent-General for Emigration in London, and for the repeal of the land-order sections of the 1860 Land Act. A new provision was made by which the Agent-General was empowered to issue to an approved pa.s.senger in London who had paid his pa.s.sage-money a land-order warrant for 30. On arrival in the colony the pa.s.senger was granted in exchange for the warrant a non-transferable land order receivable as cash at face value at sales of suburban and country lands only. These restrictions lowered the market price of the instrument, although by means of a power of attorney the non-transferable provision was for a time evaded. Eventually, however, the restrictions were made so severe that for market purposes the land order was worth little, and immigrants who had come out and failed to settle on the land found themselves in possession of a doc.u.ment of no practicable value. The extent to which the land-order traffic prevailed will be understood when it is mentioned that, in 1865, of 218,431, the total revenue from land sales, only 59,461 was cash, the remainder being represented by land orders. By 1875 the system had become discredited, and was abolished by legislation, but outstanding land orders were still used. In 1883-4 the amount so received had fallen to 16, while the cash receipts for sales were 378,637. The total value of land orders received as cash between 1861 and 1883-4 was 853,583. Some public men have contended that, if the initial practice of receiving the land order at face value in payment for any Crown land sold at auction had been continued, the Treasury would have been recouped by the larger demand and higher prices realised, but obviously a system which stimulated speculation in land was not good for the country, besides which it encouraged dummying. In 1886 the Griffith Government determined to give the system a further trial, and in the Crown Lands Act Amendment Act of that year power was given to the Agent-General to issue land-order warrants to persons paying their own pa.s.sages to Queensland. Each member of a family of twelve years of age and upwards was ent.i.tled to a 20 land order, and each child between the ages of one and twelve ent.i.tled the parent to a land order for 10. The land orders were not transferable, except in case of death, and were available for ten years for the payment of rent of Crown lands acquired by the immigrant. The Act authorising the issue of these land orders was repealed in 1894. The value of land orders issued under the Act amounted to 62,140, and of this sum only 8,956 was utilised. The great majority of the immigrants who received the orders had no desire to go on the land, and as the orders were not transferable they lapsed at the expiration of their currency to the extent of 85 per cent. of the whole.

[Footnote a: For fuller details regarding various forms of land selection, see Appendix E, post.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FOREST SCENE NEAR WOOMBYE, NORTH COAST RAILWAY]

CHAPTER IX.

APPROPRIATION OF LAND REVENUE.

Land Sales Receipts; not Consolidated Revenue.--Arguments used in favour of Treating Proceeds as Ordinary Revenue.--Auction Sales have now Practically Ceased.--Certain Proceeds Payable into Loan Fund.--Special Sales of Land Act; Appropriation of Receipts.

The revenue from sales of land for the first quarter-century was 4,672,659, besides 853,583 representing grants made in consideration of land orders issued to immigrants but not included in the revenue and expenditure returns. Nor does it include the sum of 382,346 received in cash for land sold within railway reserves and afterwards transferred to revenue. The latter amount must, however, be added to the cash receipts for land sold, which therefore totalled 5,055,005.

The practice of treating proceeds of land sales as ordinary revenue has already been incidentally alluded to, but it may be well to refer more fully to the subject. It is held that the taxpayer ought annually to provide for current expenditure, and that if land is alienated from the Crown at all the net proceeds, after defraying the cost of administration, should be applied to the construction of public works that would otherwise be of a character to justify charging their cost to the Loan Fund.

This principle in the abstract is unexceptionable; but in a new country much work is expected to be done by the Government for posterity in the nature of "invisible improvements"; in fact, it is so done, and cannot well be provided for by loan. Roads have to be cleared and formed, and buildings erected for the benefit of posterity as well as of those who so invest their money.

Moreover, the advent of population enhances the value of both public and private estates, while the maintenance of great public works like railways involves in most cases a heavy revenue loss for years after the lines are open for traffic. Only in very recent times have our railway earnings approximated, after payment of working charges and maintenance, to the amount of the interest charge upon the capital invested in them; but they have immensely benefited the country by providing facilities for internal transport, and by enhancing the value of the land, Crown and other, which they intersect and make accessible. Years ago, when the railway debt of Queensland stood at about 17 millions, an official estimate showed that, in making good the annual deficiency of interest and working expenses on the various open lines, at least as much had been spent by the Treasury as the entire first cost of their construction. So that contemporary colonists have still a charge against posterity for public works to be handed down, even though the first cost remains a liability in the form of interest upon inscribed stock held by the public creditor.

Further, it has to be said that, since the railways have begun nearly to defray interest upon capital, the auction sale of Crown land, except in small areas, has practically ceased. The receipts from auction sales in 1907-8 totalled only 33,391, and much of that sum would be absorbed were it charged with its share of the cost of administration. By the Land Sales Proceeds Act of 1906, all moneys received in payment for land sold under the authority of Part VI. of the Land Act of 1897--by auction sales of town, suburban, and country lands, or of such lands sold by selection after having been so offered--must be paid into the Loan Fund Account, and be applied to defraying the cost of such works as Parliament may from time to time determine shall be executed out of moneys standing to the credit of that fund. True, receipts for lands sold under the Special Sales of Land Act of 1901, being applied to the special purpose of retiring Treasury bills issued to make good revenue deficits, are excluded from the general law in this respect. But it is satisfactory that, even though the recognition of the principle that land is capital and not revenue has been tardy, it has now in Queensland the full force of statute law.

As to the past, it has been argued with much reason that small areas alienated were for farming purposes, and soon became far more valuable than when held for grazing purposes by tenants of the Crown. As to the future, what Parliament seems determined to guard against by every possible means is the alienation of large areas of the public domain to persons who will use the land for speculative purposes, or who by locking it up will seek to check the wave of closer settlement which it is obviously in the best interests of the State to foster and stimulate.

As the Special Sales of Land Act of 1901 still remains upon the Statute-book a few words in explanation of its provisions and objects may be useful. The first Act of this kind was pa.s.sed in 1891--(1) to provide for maturing Treasury bills for 500,000 authorised but not issued in 1887; (2) to make provision for meeting Treasury bills for 500,000 floated to cover a revenue deficit in 1890; (3) to make good an antic.i.p.ated deficit of 300,000 for the financial year 1891-2; and (4) to retire 120,945 worth of Brisbane Bridge debentures--a total of 1,420,945. Despite any statute to the contrary, country lands, not within twenty miles of a railway or the permanent survey of one, or of any navigable stream, were authorised to be sold by auction in areas of 320 acres to 5,120 acres, at the upset price of 10s. an acre.

Payments might be extended over three years, but the unpaid instalments must bear 5 per cent. interest. Any land so offered and unsold would remain open for six months for purchase at the same price and on the same terms.

The proceeds of these sales were to be applied (1) to payment of the sums appropriated by Parliament for the service of the financial years 1891-2 and 1892-3 respectively, and (2) to the payment of interest upon and retirement of the Treasury bills before mentioned. In 1901 the Philp Government were in financial trouble through federal charges and the unexampled drought, and they pa.s.sed a Treasury Bills Act and a Special Sales of Land Act, the former for the sum of 530,000; and the proceeds of the latter to be applied (1) to making good any revenue deficiency during the years 1901-2 and 1902-3, and (2) to the payment of interest upon and retirement of the bills issued under the Treasury Bills Act. In 1902 another Treasury Bills Act covering 600,000 was pa.s.sed by the same Government. The Auditor-General in his report for 1907-8 showed that there were still outstanding 1,130,000 in Treasury bills issued under the 1901 and 1902 Acts, and maturing in 1912 and 1913 respectively. In the same report the Auditor-General refers to the sum of 8,148 received from special sales of land during the year, and appropriated to the payment of interest on Treasury bills. For some years past these special sales of land have been stopped, but instalments of payments were received annually until last year (1907-8), when they amounted to 3,279; but none are now outstanding, and the Act is practically a dead letter.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HAULING TIMBER, NORTH COAST RAILWAY]

[Ill.u.s.tration: STONY CREEK BRIDGE AND FALLS, CAIRNS RAILWAY]

CHAPTER X.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN QUEENSLAND.

First Munic.i.p.ality Established.--Brisbane Bridge Lands.--Grant for Town Hall.--Consolidating Munic.i.p.alities Act.--Provincial Councils Act.--Government Buildings not Rateable.--Brisbane Bridge Debentures and Waterway Acts.--Munic.i.p.al Endowment.

--Local Government Act of 1878.--Divisional Boards Act of 1879; Success of the Act.--Local Works Loans Act.--Two Pounds for One Pound Endowment Repealed.--Rating Powers Extended by Local Authorities Act of 1902.--Cessation of Endowment.

--Valuation and Rating Act.--Decline in Land Values.

--Unequal Incidence of Rates Levied.--Efficiency of Local Authorities.

When Sir George Bowen proclaimed the establishment of Queensland there was only one munic.i.p.ality within the boundaries of the new colony.

Brisbane had been incorporated just three months earlier, probably with the view of having the Mayor of a local authority to take his part in the inaugural celebrations. At that time the New South Wales Munic.i.p.al Inst.i.tutions Act of 1858 was in force, but it was quite inadequate to the needs of the country. Sir George Bowen, coming from residence among the crowded populations of Great Britain and several European countries, and recognising what powerful safeguards to public liberty munic.i.p.al corporations had proved, publicly urged the establishment of local government in Queensland on every favourable opportunity.

In 1861 two Munic.i.p.alities Acts were pa.s.sed, one empowering the Brisbane City Council to build a bridge across the river, and providing for endowment in the form of grants of Crown land not exceeding two-thirds of the unsold town and suburban allotments of Brisbane; also empowering the council to borrow for the purpose of erecting the structure. The other Act gave extended powers to munic.i.p.al councils generally. It defined the rateable value of unoccupied lands to be 8 per cent. of their actual capital value, but the minimum rate of any allotment was not to be less than 10s. per annum. It also provided that unoccupied land might be leased for fourteen years by a council when rates had been permitted to fall into arrear for a term of four years. It further empowered a council to borrow on mortgage a sum not exceeding the estimated revenue for the ensuing three years. As additional endowment, it was provided that the Governor in Council might pay to a munic.i.p.al council every year one-third of the proceeds of land sold within its jurisdiction; and where one-half of the land in a munic.i.p.ality had been sold the council were to be ent.i.tled to one-half of the proceeds of future sales.

In 1863 an Act was pa.s.sed giving the Brisbane Council power to erect a town hall on allotment 4 and part of allotment 3 of section 12, with a frontage to Queen street and Burnett lane respectively of 99 ft., and a depth of 138 ft., to be granted by the Government on the pa.s.sing of the Act. The council were empowered to borrow 20,000 for the purposes of the hall. The Brisbane Waterworks Act empowered the Government to grant a site for the proposed works on the heads of Enoggera Creek, but the Government were to borrow the sum necessary for construction, and to hand over the money to the council as it might be required.

In 1864 an amending and consolidating Munic.i.p.al Inst.i.tutions Act was pa.s.sed giving larger and more specific powers to munic.i.p.al bodies.

In the same year a Provincial Councils Act was pa.s.sed, empowering the Government to appoint such councils in the country districts, and place at their disposal money from time to time voted by Parliament for roads and bridges within their jurisdiction. But the members, not being elective, had no power to levy rates, so that the councils would at best have been no more than bodies delegated with power by the Works Department to carry out works with which the Government could not conveniently grapple. The only provincial council established under the Act, however, was one for the Peak Downs district, of which all the members were Crown lessees. That council had its place of meeting at Clermont, and on first a.s.sembling it resolved not to admit the Press to its meetings. This exclusive policy, combined with the cla.s.s character of its members, made the council at once unpopular, and after spending 2,000 which had been placed to its credit by the Government it ingloriously collapsed.

In 1865 an Act was pa.s.sed dividing the Brisbane Munic.i.p.ality into six wards, each returning two members. In 1868 an amendment of the 1864 and 1865 Acts was pa.s.sed enabling councils to forbid the erection of inflammable buildings. In the following year an Act was pa.s.sed which forbade the levy of rates upon Government buildings. An Act of the same year enabled the Governor in Council to rescind any proclamation of town or suburban lands.

In 1870 the Brisbane Bridge Debentures Act and the Brisbane Waterway Act were pa.s.sed. By the former the council were empowered to issue debentures, bearing 5 per cent. interest and covering 121,250, for the payment of its bridge liabilities. The preamble recited that a contract had been entered into with Mr. John Bourne for the construction of the bridge; that owing to alterations in the plan a.s.sented to by the Government the cost had been largely increased, and the work had in fact been suspended; that the bank overdraft, secured upon all the bridge lands and the rates, exceeded 100,000; and that Thomas Bra.s.sey, having supplied the ironwork of the bridge, had undertaken to complete the structure on certain conditions involved in the issue of the debenture loan above mentioned. The Waterway Act provided for the repayment to the council of the cost of certain waterways by the sale of lands specified in the schedule.

In 1875 another Act was pa.s.sed providing for the payment to the Brisbane Council of the cost of certain drainage works by the sale of city lands specified in its schedule. In the same year the Rockhampton Waterworks Act, being the first for a provincial body, was pa.s.sed. In 1876 an Act was pa.s.sed for endowing munic.i.p.alities to the extent of 2 for 1 on the rates collected for the first five years after incorporation and 1 for 1 in subsequent years.

In 1878 was pa.s.sed the ponderous Local Government Act, adapted from the recent Victorian legislation, but denounced by the Opposition in the a.s.sembly at the time as far too c.u.mbrous save for town munic.i.p.alities. It formed, however, one of the bases of the Local Authorities Act of 1902. In 1879 a new departure was made by the first McIlwraith Government by pa.s.sing a rudimentary measure--the Divisional Boards Act--in which the Government took power to apply the Act simultaneously to all parts of the colony. It gave power to levy rates, and therefore excited popular anti-tax demonstrations. But much that was said against the bill proved on investigation to be inaccurate, and the endowment it provided of 2 for 1 collected in rates for the term of five years ultimately went far to neutralise the hostility expressed towards the measure. Also the bill provided that to give the boards a start an additional 100,000 should be divisible among them as soon as their respective valuations had been made and a certified copy of each had been forwarded to the Treasury. After a stern and protracted struggle in the a.s.sembly the bill was pa.s.sed, and immediately the Colonial Secretary of the time (Mr. A. H. Palmer) cut into "divisions" the entire area of the colony outside the boundaries of existing munic.i.p.alities, and proclaimed seventy-four local governing areas under that name, each in three subdivisions with nine members for each body. Then every division was invited to elect its first members, and rather more than one-half of them did so.

Within four months from the pa.s.sing of the Act--on 13th February, 1880[a]--the whole of the members were gazetted, the Government having taken advantage of the power given to the Governor in Council to appoint the first members where no action had been initiated to elect them within ninety days after the pa.s.sing of the Act. Thus the names of between 600 and 700 members were proclaimed on one day, and the new boards forthwith proceeded to put the Act into execution. In a comparatively short time valuations were made, and on receipt of a copy the Treasurer placed to the credit of the board, in the branch of the Queensland National Bank nearest to the division, an amount equal to 1s. in the pound of the valuation. This done, works were forthwith commenced in all parts of the country, and a few years later visitors from the South were wont to compliment the people of Queensland on the vast improvement made in their bush roads.

In the following year (1880) the Local Works Loans Act was pa.s.sed, and attracted attention in different parts of the Empire as the first measure that provided for advancing local loans by a Government on the scientific basis of a term measured by the life of each work, and in accordance with an actuarial scale set out in a table in the schedule.

The longest term was forty years, that being given for the most durable works, the rate charged being 5 per cent. interest, with 16s. 8d. per annum redemption money. Thus a council could borrow for waterworks on a forty years' loan, and redeem the princ.i.p.al as well as defray the interest charge, by payment of regular half-yearly instalments of 2 18s. 4d. per cent. during the term. This Act soon became very popular, and with slight amendments--one being the reduction of the interest charge to 4 per cent., and the half-yearly instalment in the case of a forty years' loan to 2 10s. 0d.

per cent.--it still remains on the Statute-book as part of the Local Authorities Act of 1902. Several millions sterling have since been lent by the Government under this Act, and scarcely a local authority has defaulted except for a short period. The principle has also been extended to sugar works and other loans not contemplated originally; yet with firm administration, such as the Government for several years past have insisted upon, the future losses, if any, will be slight, and the benefit of the Act continue to be great.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TIMBER GETTING, NORTH COAST DISTRICT]

In 1887 Sir S. W. Griffith pa.s.sed an amending and consolidating Divisional Boards Act in which many defects of the original measure were corrected. About the same time he pa.s.sed an Act to relieve the Treasury from the excessive burden of the 2 for 1 endowment, which had been extended in 1884 for a second five-year period. Under the amended law only such sum as Parliament might vote in each year was to be rateably divided among all local authorities. After that time the endowment diminished until in 1893 it reached a very small sum.

Afterwards the amount remained at about 6s. in the pound until 1902, when, in pa.s.sing the new amending and consolidating Local Authorities Act of that year, the Philp Government made no provision for continuance of the endowment. In 1903, therefore, owing to the embarra.s.sment of the Treasury in consequence of heavy deficits for several years in succession, the endowment altogether ceased, and since that time the Government have steadfastly refused to listen to proposals for renewing the payment, on the ground that each governing authority should raise its own revenue by taxation or otherwise, and not depend upon endowments collected by any other governing authority.

The stoppage of the endowment was in some degree compensated for by the extension of the rating powers of the local authorities, but the exercise of these has no doubt accentuated the drop which occurred in a.s.sessment values after the crisis of 1893. Some councils, through failure to make use of their powers of rating, have had an insufficient income, so that in parts of the country the roads are now in a less traffickable condition than they were a quarter of a century ago. In other cases, however, the local bodies have so used the powers conferred upon them that they make no complaint of insufficient income.

From the day of the presentation to Parliament of the Divisional Boards Bill there had always been an outcry, among the farming ratepayers chiefly, against the taxation of improvements. In 1890, therefore, after ten years' experience, the Government of the coalition, whose leaders had long been severed by difference of opinion on the subject of land taxation, perceived in a universal levy on the unimproved value, so called, a method of mutual reconciliation which would meet the demands of many true exponents of local government principles, and they agreed to introduce the new system.

The "unimproved value" is by no means an accurate definition of what either the taxpayers or the Legislature at the time desired. But no one has yet discovered a more satisfactory definition, and therefore it stands.

Up to 1890 the a.s.sessment had been on the net rent a property might be reasonably expected to yield after deducting the cost of rates and insurance and the amount necessary to maintain the property in a condition to command such rent. This was, in short, the old basis of a.s.sessment in the mother country; but to meet the objection to the a.s.sessment of improvements the Government, in introducing the first Divisional Boards Bill, had modified the valuation clause by the proviso that the improvements on land should be a.s.sessed at one-half their value. This was a modification of the New Zealand a.s.sessment method, and it gave fair satisfaction for a time.

Country ratepayers for the most part approved the change to the unimproved value a.s.sessment; but speculators in unoccupied city, town, and suburban lands regarded it as a gross injustice. They not unnaturally complained that an allotment bare, or with a mere hut upon it, would pay as much in rates under the new system as the adjoining allotment which might be the site of s.p.a.cious business premises or of a palatial dwelling. To this the reply was that the speculative holding of city and suburban lands inflicted gross injustice upon the man who wanted at existing value an allotment for his own use.

The Valuation and Rating Act of 1890 pa.s.sed, however; and the law as it stands has the undoubted merit of simplicity in valuations. On the other hand, the rate levied under the unimproved value a.s.sessment upon vacant lands is sometimes oppressive, and appreciably reduces their capital value. Another unforeseen effect has also been realised. The value of a highly improved allotment tends to become depressed to the value of the unproductive and unoccupied allotment contiguous or adjacent to it. Hence an intending buyer is apt to ascertain the local authority valuation of any land he needs, and to regulate his price accordingly. In a buoyant land market this might not much affect the selling value, but for twenty years past the land market for city or suburban properties has been the reverse of buoyant. So the unimproved value mode of a.s.sessment has apparently a.s.sisted to make a substantial reduction in the market value of city and suburban properties. But that is perhaps a less evil than may at first sight appear. The speculative inflation of land values is simply a tax upon the user for all time; and the moment the income-earning value is exceeded the excess must be regarded as an unjust charge upon posterity.

Of course land values will eventually find their true level, whatever law of rating may be in force. It may be conceded that the unimproved a.s.sessment has caused distress among landowners who had no means of improving their properties, and could only find a market for them at a heavy sacrifice. Still there is no disposition on the part of the majority of ratepayers to revert to the old annual value system, and there is not likely to be any alteration in the law in this respect unless for the removal of some obvious administrative anomaly. For, as the coalition leaders agreed nineteen years ago, the local rate has become a land tax pure and simple, and if it be held that more money is wanted for development the simpler course is to allow the local authorities to give another twist to the rating screw. This, as a matter of fact, most of them have of late years done, and in many local jurisdictions the rate is now 3d. in the pound, when twenty years ago only 1d. or 1d. was levied. In 1884 the total local rates levied were 120,479; in 1908 the total was 452,052 for, it must be remembered, an identical aggregate area. A local authorities'