The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MOBNING. GISBORNE, SEPT. 6, 1906.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1853, 6 September 1906, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MOBNING. GISBORNE, SEPT. 6, 1906.

Whenever anything is written in opposition to inoraasod or increasing land values everyone but landowners, and especially members of Trades Unions and Government supporters, are inclined to pass it by as unimportant, or to treat it with hostility. Nearly every city Trades Unionist regards the land owner as the natural enemy of progress, and is ready to condemn him as such without the benefit of a j ury of his countrymen. Political agitators there are by the score in all the cities who delight in g’ving vent to vague theories upon every phase of land tenure, yot not one

of them hag been found who would not possess a piece of freehold if he could get it. These people are the greatest sinners in misleading working men into false beliefs and inducing them to support agitation and legislation, too, in a direction contrary to their best interests. Not a working man in any of the cities can be found who is not ready to declaim against high rents, for the very good reason that the matter taxes their pockets j severely, and many (quite the majority) of them are quite unable to pay rents for tenements that are at all adequate or comfortable for their families ; but they are ready at the same time to support any scheme that will have the effect of making th. 9 landowner pay higher taxes. They never think that high rentals are the inevitable sequence of high values and taxes on land. Had they thought of this and found out that the man who builds a house costing £3OO on land costing an equal sum, and who has to pay say £5 a year in rates and taxes, cannot possibly afford to let that house for les3 than £1 a week, which is more than any working man can afford to pay, and the accommodation afforded is not sufficient to supply comfortable requirements. But if the taxes are raised another couple of pounds a year because the Government insists upon high land valuations and compels local Councils to rate on those values at 6

t )or eont., it naturally follows that the landlord must ruiso tho rout to recoup liimsolf. In plain words, it is the tenant who lias to pay tho incroasod taxes, and >ot thoso who have to loaso or occupy thoso tonomouts are insano onough to back up tho Govorn» moat that iiuposos tins poualty upon thorn indirectly. Why is that so V Mimply bccauso working mon will not study their own interests closoly enough to got at tho real causes of their inability to got delimit accommodation at a docent outlay, and bocauso thoy aro too prono to baton to political fulsomonosa anil maudlin sympathy from tho vory mon who have imposod thoso burdens upon them. Cocause, also, they look to labor laws to supply ovory want anil to redress ovory griovanco, while outiroly losing sight of tho fact that thoy aro in a woi'so position to day than thoy wore boforo any labor laws wore passed. Then thoy did not earn so much as thoy do now, but thoy did not havo to sponil as“iuuch for tho same accommodation, and thoy could save more money thon without stinting tlioir familios than thoy aro ablo to do now.

Of courso those conditions aro more acute in the cities than they aro in the smallor towns and the country, but the statement applies to all, and the men who aro most solicitous for tlioir political support aro the very men who could bonolit them could they bo induced to make up their minds to try to do something practical instead .of proaching sympathy with the working man and helping those who do not want assistance. It is not our practice to say anything that cannot bo substantiated, and for proof of the above wo have only to refer to the Estimates now' bofore the House. Therein it will be found that the head of every Department (we are not aware of any exception) has a rise of £SO, or in one or two cases £25, added to their already high salaries, and the Secretary for Labor, who has literally nothing to do, is no exception to the rule. By this means the annual expenditure, towards which every working man has to contribute before ho eats his breakfast or has his morning whiff of tobacco, is swelled enormously. The increased expenditure this year tots up to the enormous sum of £453,632, not all caused by increased salaries, however, still it has to be made up from taxation either on land, income, or personal requirements, and the working man has to pay his share in more than one direction, and he should not again forget that high land valuos affect his pocket as well as high duty on tobacco or othor necessaries. One could reasonably imagine that the set of politicians who profess a special care for the workers of this country would not be guilty of clandestine impositions such as these, for such they undoubtedly aro. Were they direct impositions the workers’ eyes would be opened and tho burdens would not be tolerated for a single moment, for not only would land values be reduced to their proper and legitimate level, but high~salaried olficials, many of whose positions are not far removed from mere sinecures, would have to return a quid pro quo for the money they now get so easily before those already too high salaries were raised at the rate of £SO each per year as is being done by the liberal laboring men’s Government. The Government has truly earned the distinction for liberality ; but in such an unenviable way that no true friend of a true democracy would care to emulate their deeds To do those things is bad enough in all conscience ; but to do them and then to come before their innocent, unsuspecting, credulous, willing victims and pose as their true and only friends is the doubledistilled quintessence of (Well, let the workers themselves find the missing word).