ESTATE. DUTIES AND AGRICULTURE [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sia,—It has recently been suggested that estate duty on agricultural land should be made payable by the surrender of land, and it has been advanced as a reason for the sugkestiOn that it would benefit the fanning community. At the risk of being dubbed reactionary I venture to suggest that estate duty on agricultural land, buildings, and stock should be abolished, Agriculture is a productive industry_ which circumstances make best carried on by private hands.
Apart from fishing and to some degree baking I know of no other productive industry which pays d periodic toll to the State out of its capital. But agriculture does this every time a farmer dies. The abolition of estate duty on agricultural land, buildings, and stock would; therefore, be no more than a relief from a burden which is not borne by the bulk of the productive industries of the country:
Personally, I regard continuity of tenure and inherited capabilities as two of the most important things fanning needs to-day—and few things,, I believe, would help it more than the scheme I am suggesting.—I -tun, Sir, &c.,
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