Of course land values will eventually find their true level, whatever law of rating may be in force. It may be conceded that the unimproved assessment has caused distress among landowners who had no means of improving their properties, and could only find a market for them at a heavy sacrifice. Still there is no disposition on the part of the majority of ratepayers to revert to the old annual value system, and there is not likely to be any alteration in the law in this respect unless for the removal of some obvious administrative anomaly. For, as the coalition leaders agreed nineteen years ago, the local rate has become a land tax pure and simple, and if it be held that more money is wanted for development the simpler course is to allow the local authorities to give another twist to the rating screw. This, as a matter of fact, most of them have of late years done, and in many local jurisdictions the rate is now 3d. in the pound, when twenty years ago only 1d. or 11/2d. was levied. In 1884 the total local rates levied were L120,479; in 1908 the total was L452,052 for, it must be remembered, an identical aggregate area. A local authorities' rate has the distinct advantage in a young State like Queensland that, whereas a Treasury land tax would reach only the freeholders of less than 20,000,000 acres, the local government rate is levied upon 460,000 square miles. The subjoined table is compiled from Statistics of Queensland for 1884 and 1908 respectively:-- AMOUNT LEVIED BY LOCAL AUTHORITIES. ------------------------+-------------------------+------------------------ Year 1884. | Year 1908. | Increases, 1908. ------------------------+-------------------------+------------------------ CITIES AND TOWNS-- L | CITIES AND TOWNS-- L | CITIES AND TOWNS-- L General Rates 46,208 | General Rates 150,744 | General Rates 104,536 | | Separate 4,845 | Separate} | Separate or | } 87,155 | Special 7,583 | Special } | Special 74,727 ------- | -------- | -------- Total L58,636 | Total L237,899 | Total L179,263 | | DIVISIONS-- | SHIRES-- | SHIRES-- Total L61,843 | Total L214,153 | Total L152,310 ------- | -------- | -------- Grand Total L120,479 | Grand Total L452,052 | Grand Total L331,573 ------------------------+-------------------------+------------------------