The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published Every Tuesday, Thursday, AND Saturday Morning. Tuesday, June 23, 1891. THE BALLANCE POLICY.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume V, Issue 624, 23 June 1891, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published Every Tuesday, Thursday, AND Saturday Morning.

Tuesday, June 23, 1891. THE BALLANCE POLICY.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s, Thy God’s, and truth’s.

The new proposals made by the Government now in power have a special interest by reason of the exodus that has been taking place from the colony. Under the system it is believed that all the small farmers will escape taxation. Mr Ballance says that the value of improvements are to be deducted up to X"3000. A farm is worth (improved value) /800; if improvements are £3OO the farm is not taxable for the £5OO. Exemption has to be taken from unimproved value. If an estate is worth £5OO unimproved value, with improvements /"1500 it would not be taxable. No improvements are taxable below /"3000. This makes it plain that every encouragement is to be given to those who make the best use of their land, instead of crushing them with a property tax directly they begin to make substantial improvements. This policy, taken with the liberal land laws, ought to be of some service in arresting the outflow of population. The predictions of farseeing men in the old days have already been fulfilled. By the assisted immigration scheme 112,000 people were brought into the colony, but they chiefly settled in the towns. There was no really good land open for settlement within reasonable distance of markets; the old fiction denominated that large areas of fine country were fit only for sheep walks; skilled and unskilled labor could command good wages during the expenditure of the borrowed millions, and their children naturally grew up with a fondness for the comforts of town life. Then came the curtailment of the public expenditure, simultaneous with cheap fares to the Australian colonies, and the lavishing of borrowed money in these colonies, while there was some revival in the mining business. For a time those colonies will be the centre of attraction, but there are indications that the attraction cannot last long. The tether is being reached in the matter of borrowed money and the cry of the unemployed is increasing. The other colonies have been making the same mistake as New Zealand did, attracting a floating town population when there ought to be special inducements for permanent settlers. In eighteen years New Zealand’s public debt showed an increase of 29J millions, the net indebtedness per head rising from £2O 14s 7d in 1870 to /GO 17s 6d in 1888. Last year only /"335,151 was spent out of the borrowed money; the following table shows the net indebtedness of the colony during the years given:—

1870 • Z7.384,S47 1871 ■ 8,397,447 1872 . 9,328,322 1873 . 10,109,301 1874 . 12,408,935 1875 . 16,299,912 1876 17,388,155 1877 19,252,273 1878 . 20,930,184 1879 ■ 22,153,079 1880 . 26,582,911 1881 , 27,455,218 1882 . 37,773,215 1883 . 28,670,317 1884 . 29,877,«79 1885 • 32,572,492 1880 . 34,188,512 1887 • 34,954,035 1888 • 30,971,771