kanks; it is probably seventeen per cent
&
the so-called
much
being about
cent on the annual valued.
ground-rents scom iw o fact
to be nothing but a
... - very unequal tax upon property, and ... I shall consider them to be while proposing, the following,
Remedy,
it w
the best way to devise, but which,
I hoped, may be improved upon by
Some wiser
person. I propose then :
That the option be given
· for all, to the present lessees, to hold their land in fee simple : (this, I suppose, the legal terms), and that all lots disposed of in future be granted in that tenure.
2ndly.
That the amount of
revenue at
present, derived by Government from lands now demised by Government, but hereafter
to be held on fee simple tenure, as well
As
the
revenue to be derived from lands to be in future granted, be levied
by a
rate
of assessment of the annual value
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407
of
those lands and their superincumbent
buildings ; untenanted property remaining
always untaxed.
The benefits which it is supposed
are,
(very simple scheme will confer firstly, equalization of taxation ; second
a
more obvious
encouragement to capital to invest
in the Colony; and thirdly, identification of the interests of the people and their representatives, the Government. The estimated annual value of all
real property
in the Colony is about sixty-seven thousand pounds, perhaps somewhat less; the land revenue is about eleven thousand five hundred pounds a year, as has been before said, a
little more than
Seventeen per cent on that yearly
value.
If all lands now demised were held on the new tenure, this would of course be the rate to be levied on them in future :