The Position Summed Up

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 147, 4 June 1891, Page 3

The Position Summed Up

About fifty years ago an eminent lecturer on the philosophy of law wlived.' His name was Austin. The lectures which he delivered weie collected, at great pains, and published. The volumes which contain these • lectures have become* the standard •work*on the science of jurisprudence. In some of his lectures he discusses .the question of the moral or ethical 'standard, and ably analyses the utilitarian theory. In considering the tendency of human actions he refers to the question of the invasion of property in the following terms :— ' «' Without security for property there no inducement to save. Without accumulation of capital there were no ' funds for the payment of wag( B, no division of labor", .no elaborate or costly machines; there were none of those helps, to labor which augment its productive . power, and therefore , multiply the enjoyments* of every individual of the community. , Frequent • invasions of property would bring the rich' to 1 poverty and aggravate the ' poverty ' of the poor. 7 ' This is the Bumnjation given by % man whose ' keennpss of intellect and .reasoning - now* • ha* 0 -pl ace< * n ' m amoa &' the foremost .ranks of political philosothere. What a pity at Js that the - Hon. Mr Seddon and the older meint bers of the Government, of which he *' is the*bright particular star, could not ' . j)e induced to see things as Austin

saw them fifty years ago/ They appear to think that' people will save money in order that politicians may squander it »>n spneial trains and be rohhed of it in the name of law. There is no hope of that progress being made which the colony is entitled to, till the, political charlatanism, which rules in h'igh places at present, is replaced by principles which have stood the test of experience and " are in accordance with honesty and common sense. — Christchurch- Press.

(For continuation of Reading Matter see I r fourth page.)