No money was paid by the General
Government for right of way.
All claims for damages arising out of the building of railways had to
be presented to the District Court, and the law provided that the
District Court could grant such compensation as was just, but in no case
could it exceed the assessed value of the land per acre that the owner
had sworn to previously as the full value of his land, to be paid out of
the funds of the district. There were only two forms of taxation in
Eurasia, a land tax and a graduated income tax. There was no tax on
improvements of any kind, either on city or country property, but on the
land only; by this wise system of taxation encouraging the people to
improve their property and beautify and discouraging land speculation;
and when the Government wanted land owned by private parties who were
citizens of the Republic (for no foreigner was permitted by law to own
land directly or indirectly, so that the curse of Absentee Landlordism
which was the ruin of Ireland, should never blight the happiness of the
people of Eurasia), they added up the assessments for the previous five
years and divided them by five and added twenty per cent.
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