Te Toa Takitini 25
[1]
Te Toa Takitini
Registered at the GPO as a Newspaper.
(Maori Version at PapersPast.)
Number 25, Hastings, August 1, 1923.
[A Photograph of Bishop Azariah with Te Wheoro Poni, Lay Reader from Ohinemutu.]
Published by the Rev F A Bennett. Printed by Cliff Press, Queen Street, Hastings, HB.
[2]
TE TOA TAKITINI
Registered at the GPO as a Newspaper.
The Price of the Paper is 6/6 a year.
Letters should be addressed to ‘Te Toa Takitini,’ Box 300, Hastings.
Number 25, Hastings, August 1, 1923.
TAXING MAORI LAND.
A T Ngata, MP.
Last year a petition was organised asking for lower taxes on Maori lands. The Maori Affairs Committee agreed to draw up a law limiting any increase in tax to no more than twenty-five percent of the rent received. The Maori Members asked last year that it be reduced to ten percent, that is, that a limit of two shillings in the pound of the money received in rent be taken as tax. The Prime Minister said at that time that this would be looked into this year and any easing of taxes on land, including Maori land, would depend on the state of the finances of the Dominion.
For the second time the Maori Members are now asking that the tax be reduced to no more than ten percent of the money received in rent thus setting a limit to the heavy taxes on leased land; land that is not leased is not taxed. We have received the petition of the Commissioner of Tai Rawhiti Trust Lands (Judge Rawson) saying that a law reducing taxes on land should be applied retrospectively to last year. His petition applies only to land under his oversight – the area from Uawa to Gisborne and as far as Te Mahia. The petition has been and if it is approved then perhaps £10,000 which the Government has taken in tax will be returned.
