LAND NATIONALIZATION.

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 110, 15 March 1892, Page 2

LAND NATIONALIZATION.

TO WHOM DOES THE LAND BELONG ? TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR. Sir— Being curious to know to what section of the community those gentlemen belong, who consider it so necessary to form themselves into an association for the purpose of obtaining certain political ends, and that I might be better able to discover how much of honest endeavour to serve the country, and how much of personal interest there was in the matter, I referred to the list of names of the most prominent members, and found that every one with whom I am acquainted represented considerable landed interest, either by agency, or personal ownership, and as one of the objects of the association is notably " To uphold freehold tenure as against nationalizing of the land," I think I am not wrong in conjecturing that private advantage is as much a motor to their activity as is the desire to settle the land upon a sound basis. I shall now bring forward some cogent reasons why the land should be nationalised, or in other words, why the state should be the direct custodian and distributor of the land, as it is the owner de facto. I ask "To whom does the land belong ?" It belongs to the nation, and the nation is the people who dwell within its realm, it is theirs/or their use by laws divine, laws natural, and laws national. The divine law gives man dominion over the earth — for his use. The natural law, in its beneficence when -giving man the breath of life, provides him with the means of supporting it, by placing him upon the land whereon he pay labor and so cause it to bring forth its fruits to feed and clothe him. The national law declares that every British subject may claim a right to abide in his own country as long as he pleases, except by sentence of the law, thus showing. that the land is the property of every member of the community. And as the State represents the community, haying been created by it for the protection of its members, for the dealing out of justice and the preservation of order, and to which State every man is bound by allegiance, it is the most fitting truatee of the "people's inheritance," and it alone should have the investiture of the land within, its realm. The land then being , the inheritance of the whole of the people it must be apparent to all, that when one of them arrogates to himself more land than is necessary to support him with ori dinary comfort, he disinherits the others. And I maintain that the principal duty of the State— nay, its whole duty, may be said to be comprised in protecting the peoples' heritage, whether from external enemies or from internal spoliation, and that therefore the state is the best guardlan of the people's estate. Fearing to enroach too much, upon your columns I must be satisfied with ! giving this one reason ; but will, with your permission, give at an early future, some others. I am, etc., S. Knight.