LAND NATIONALISATION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1283, 8 July 1886, Page 2

LAND NATIONALISATION.

TO THR EDITOR.

Sir, —My reply to your correspondent “ Lacidar” is : Land is the source of all wealth ; taxes are wealth ; therefore, land is the aource of all taxes, which is equivalent to saying all taxes are ultimately borne by the land. If the above is correct, the second part of the question requires no answer. “ Lacidar” does not appear to fully understand the illustration of the Irishman and the donkey. He says, “ If the man had simply got off the ‘baist ’ ” Coming to the things in question, land and labor : if labor gets off land, where does he land 1 I may put another question to your correspondent : If every ass must bear his own burden, wbat bears the ass ?—I, am, &c , Radical

to thr editor. Sir, —I am sorry I cannot agree with your Friday’s correspondent, a “ Radical,” when he assumes that, however indirectly imposed, all taxation must finally rest on land. This is just what it does not do, and is the very thing that land reformers wish to bring about. Were rent applied to revenue, in all countries custom houses could be abolished, the c mmodities of nations interchanged, and a state of free trade realised, which at present is ideal enough. Considering, as I do, ore and timber to be products of the soil quite as much as are grass and grain, let us see how taxation affects society through them Suppose the mine or forest bought for a price, labor must raise the ore and fell the tree before they can be of use, and the vendor when selling w.ll naturally ask not only wages for his w rk, but interest for the capital invested in the soil. Between the raw material and the finished article there is often a long difference. This the property valuator knows and values accordingly What has made the difference ? Is it not labor ? And who pays for the enhanced value in taxation? At the present time, labor pure and simple, has not in law the shadow of a claim to that soil from which the elements of every industry must bo drawn ; soil which when once parted with by the State is treated for purposes of revenue only as property yet it cannot be multi plied, while its products may be doubled in quantity and in value by the application of who abhors the idea embodied in the word confiscation more than I. Hardly have I worked for, dearly have f won all of its soil the law calls mine, yet if 1, seeing the good which will accrue to my fellow-men by the passing of snch a law as a Land Tax, am willing to throw the labor of a life into the common fund, it Jwill bo from a better motive than a wish for confiscation or spoliation. It will be from a wish to further the ends of justice. In conclusion, when a just and safe way of raising revenue and relieving want is placed before any country, I would ask those who talk of fair and {reasonable schemes to study the Book which contains this prediction, “ If yo- will not hear, and ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto My name, I will even send a Curse upon you The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof.” Ho Las given it to the eons of men to inhabit; not that it may be a source of gain and grandeur to one portion and the cause of toil and degradation to another.—l am, &c.,

Oke of the People.