A REPLY TO MR PROUSE.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 25 November 1912, Page 3

A REPLY TO MR PROUSE.

(To the Editor A

i?ir, —following .Mr Prouse's lead, my starting point is taxing unimproved land values. Surely Mr Prouse knows that the very first article in the creed of the land values league is that a man is justly entitled to all tlie values he creates by reason of his own industry, and of the improvements he carries out on his property, lint all values created bv the public or by public money, such as the influx of population to a district or the establishment of some great natural industry, or through the construction of railways, roads and bridges belongs as j truly to the public as the privatelycrcated value belongs to tho individual. "What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander." J'Yom his apparently righteous outburst oil tho subject, I take it that Mr Prouse is ian uncompromising opponent of nnr present- adult suffrage. He omitted to tell us whether the "motley lot" on hoard the steamer (is Mr Prouse included In that term?) assisted as they were by his profound wisdom, succeeded in formulating a scheme of franchise, which should give universal satisfaction, while at the same time, refusing n voice in t-lie management of the country's affairs to a section of the taxpayers. So long as patriots and traitors (whoever the latter may be, unless they are political opponents of Mr Prouse) liavo to bear their burdens er|iiial!y, there can never bo any discrimination in the respective values of votes. One man. on.? vote: one vote, one value, is the democratic ideal. T really fail to see how Mr Prouse can blame the single taxer for the financial misfortune that overtook the spoc-

ulativo gentleman, whose experiences ho .so pathetically portrayed! From Mr Prouse's own admission it would seem that the aforesaid gentleman was out to "make" at the expense of -a gullible public, and that he himself was done, while trying to do others. He wanted to reap where he had not sown, and he did reap—the whirlwind. His fate ought to be a lesson to those who wish to 'secure for themselves pub-lic-created values, which the supporters of unimproved land values maintain, belong rightly to the public, iand not to any individual person.—Your.?, etc., LAND VALUE.