Correspondence.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 303, 29 June 1896, Page 2

Correspondence.

THE SINGLE TAX QUESTIO^ TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAB. ." Sib, — It was with extreme disgust l read in your columns that a discussion had taken place on the single' tax scheme propounded by Mr Withy. In the first place, I hold that the Debating Society are reprehensible in no small degree for encouraging discussion on subjects which have for their dbjecta -. the plunder of the industrial and f rujgal classes, viz., the owners and occupiers of land, by the improvident and loafing portion of the community. The mem' bera of the Debating Club get their bread and butter from the class these men would deprive of their property. The hard ' earned efforts of years, 4 in -, som cases the earnings of a life time of farmers and families are vested in landed property — iands which at one time were useless, being bush and Bwamp, and, under these circumstances, incapable of sustaining life. It was only by felling, sowing, and stocking, that these waste lands have been made fit to sup* port the Withys and the Wests and £he V other non-producing classes who wqnld now, after a life long struggle, rob by legislative processes, farmers and others of the just and righteous fruits of their labors. 1 would point out that much of the reclamation of forest and swamp, especially in the earlier days of the colony, has been done under peculiar and trying circumstances, not sight but 16 hours per day of the hardest and dirti- .'.. est work has been the lot of farmers and ' families to reduce to a paying condition these waste and, prior to their efforts, useless landg. Independently , howeyer, of the hardship and wrong such a course wonld be to those who have vested their savings in real estate, whether: fanners or other land owners, the doctrines taught are (if Mr Withy is correctly reported) thoroughly dishonest. To take the hard earnings of others, whetherjby collective action or otherwise, is as much a theft as the taking of your purse by a spieler, or housebreaking by a burglar. This man is evidently a crank whose moral perception is so perverted as to , render him utterly incapable of realising the nature of the crime her advocates, and perhaps is more to be : pitied than * punished. Nevertheless he and others , of his class should be prevented- from corrupting the public mind jujrt ,as wo would prevent a lecturer publicly commending the actions of Jack Shepherd Ned Kelly, and others of that ilk. It, is clearly a breach of the Divine as well as. natural law "Thou shaUt not ; steal." \ This applies to personal as well as real property, which I will show id my next letter. I shall now close' being mindful of your injunction to be brief. (. | lain, etc., -I v t $■■■ J. B. Boots* r .