'A correspondent who signs himself "Paul" has been at much pair show in our columns hew unfair "the present taxation system inch: the Foreign Settlement and how Infinitely more revenue could be jcbtained through a different scheme, jas regards land rating. We shall not attempt to assess in any way the merits or demerits of his suggestions, for that would require a very expert knowledge of the intricacy Jot taxation, but it may be pointed out that certain of his writings contain a similarity to what known in America ay "single-tax, In its operation "single-tax" is antithesis of ordinary taxation, and idea has proved attractive] Jenough to have secured for it a eer-tain following, prominent among its Jadherents being Joseph Fels the millionaire. "The position is somewhat after this wise, Whereas when, and in any town or district becomes, developed, the local authority—Municipal Council or whatever" it may res an increased re-Venue, as there are more houses and offices upon which to levy rates, At} the same time, the more the owner: Jof the land develops his property. the more does he, as an owner, havo} to pay in rates, and so, say the "single-taxers," this man of enter prise who furnishes offices and houses to meet the needs of people Jand s0 docs a service to the community is to such an extent penalized for his enterprise. On the other} hand there a. certain every community who do not develop their land to the full, or even at all. Either they do not want to take the risk of putting up expensive build-mes and finding them unlet, or they deliberately act the part of land spectators—allowing other people to up the price of property aca heir particulas lots and then "at some favourable period such a3 a land boom, selling out. These land-lowners have done nothing towards bringing about a higher price for {their land, but have allowed the neighbours to do it, and have escap. Jed the greater burden of taxation, [What the "single-taxers" aim at to exempt as far as possible from, taxation the men who have shown enterprise and publi¢ spirit in developing their land, and on the other} liliand to tax to the utmost limit those! {who play the part of drones—do nothing but wait upon fortunes out of it. 'Therefore, the less developed the land, the' higher the taxation, [would be under their scheme, and the theory stipulates that this plan would be such a success that' no other tax than "single-tax" need be fievied. "These, we believe, are. the general outlines of the scheme, but as it has not been adopted in Amer-fico there la possibly a flaw in the [reasoning somewhere, and we have! ino idea how it would work in Shang.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.