CARTOON - THE SAME OLD COW ON THE LINE

Ben Strange was a prominent political cartoonist in Western Australia who worked for the Western Mail from 1898 to 1930. This original hand drawn cartoon, by Ben Strange, was first published in the Western Mail on 7 October 1920.
This cartoon was inspired by a growing Western Australian deficit and the Nationalist’s Government’s, led by Sir James Mitchell, move to introduce a unimproved land tax to help bolster the government coffers and help it pay for its current expansion of the railway network in rural Western Australia. The tax was also aimed at discouraging land speculators from buying land along new railway pathways with no other intention than profiting from its sale rather than turning it into farming land. It was also designed to assist in making cheaper land available for programs such as the Soldier Settlement Scheme assisting WWI veterans to purchase affordable farms, the Group Settlement Scheme aimed at new British migrants and an expansion of the diary sector.