and by the State for the acquisition of land. We can simplify those powers, and thus make it possible to obtain land much more cheaply by compulsion.
Another way of cheapening land is advocated by a certain group of people who believe in the taxation of land values. They point out that at present land is rated or taxed, not upon its capital value, but upon its letting value at the moment. A site, for instance, that is worth a thousand pounds an acre, and is let at a pound an acre for grazing, is rated on a basis of a pound an acre—indeed, in such a case, it is only rated on the basis of 10s. an acre, because of the Agricultural Rating Act. Clearly such a system of assessment gives its owner no inducement to put it to its best use. There is no doubt that any alteration in our rating system by which land was assessed for rating on its capital value instead of on the basis of the rent it was producing, would bring into the market a good deal of land which at present is not available.
