Matawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) Suivant la verite. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 1884. THE LAND QUESTION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 120, 16 April 1884, Page 2

Matawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) Suivant la verite. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 1884. THE LAND QUESTION.

Many of our readers will remember that not long ago there arose m America a certain man named Henry George, who conscientiously conceived: that he had discovered the philosopher's: stone, that the panacea for all the ills; .which spring from social and political, inequality had been revealed to him. He wrote a book m which he demonstrated to his own satisfaction the efficacy of his remedy ; and this remedy lay m the nationalisation of the land. Tho character of Henry George is what is called " thorough" ; he saw, or it was pointed but to him, that on business principles his llieoiy was impracticable, that is to s&y, that, if the present owners of the land were to be paid to give it up for the good of the nation, nationalisation would, practically speaking, be un impossibility j bnt this broad statement of fact m no way disconcerted him. What did he do? He at once advocated the seizure of all land without compensation, on the plea that the present owners obtained it unjustfy. A man, he argues, lias no more right to the land than the purchaser of a horse has to the animal provided it had been stolen, and instead of the people having to pay for the land, the present holders thereof should be compelled to reuder up the profits which they have for so many years unjustly „ absorbed; As the Waikato Times observes: — This, of course, opens up a wide question, and invoives a consideration of the rights of all the recipients of the wealth which the land has prod need (for, of course, this wealth could not have been buried.) But it is not our purpose to enquire into that matter. What most concerns us, who watch with more or less interest the affairs of our kinsfolk across the ocean, is, What response do Englishmen make to the appeals of this George the Fifth, as Mr La-BOUChere culled him ? Mr Geobge has followed up his book m person, and at latest accounts was " doing- " the provinces, lecturing to the English people on the land question. The man is not so successful as the book. The average Englishman will read almost anything, but he will not listen to anything ; he may smile over " Moses' Mistakes," but he would hiss Col. IngkrsoLL off a public platform if he dared to preach blasphemy to him. And so it is with "Progress and Poverty." It is pleasant to read of a method whereby, to use the words of the Pall Mali Gazotte, we may take a

short cut to the millcniuni, but when I a man stands on a platform and calmly proposes that we should rob the land owners, it is more than the flesh and blood of an Englishman can stand. A certain class of demagogues may clap their hands and stamp their feet, but the mass of the people are silent, or voiceful only to condemn. Again," England is the paradise of the Press. And what do the newspapers say 1 The Conservative journals naturally laugh at Mr George ; nothing else could be expected of them', but what does the Liberal and Radical .Press say 1 Of the latter the Echo thinks Mr Gteokge fails to estimate the strength of the Conservative forces m English society ; the Pall Mall Gazette says that land nationalisation, minus compensation, is simply wholesale robbery plus cant ; the Daily News, the great Liberal organ, does not believe the scheme advocated by Mr G-eorgb has the slightest chance of being adopted, though the agitation may be the means of hastening many needed reforms. The: Times, which jusfc now is Liberal also, remarks that land, however divided, c.\n only support a certain number of persons. When this number had been exceeded, as it §oon would be, the present state of poverty would recur with intensified force. Men suffering from their own idleness, or vice,] or folly, or incompetence, or from those of their parents^ would be no more content than they now are to put up with the consequences of I heir defects. They would cry out as loudly as they mow do for justice, as they wonM be pleased to term it, and a Mr Henby Oeorgis of the future would cdnie to prove them m the right. A welt-; known Scotch journal published m the interests of the agricultural class -r-the North British Agricalturist^-in its issue of the 13th February, says : — "lt is not likely that Mr Henry George m hi 3 lectures throughout the country -will materially advance the questions of the ' land for the people,' or the 4 nationalisation of the land.' He lias begun, and indeed i« proceeding, on the wrong tack to accomplish much m that direct ion. What differences of opinion may exist as regards the propriety or otherwise of very large tracts of country being the property of one man ; whatever may be thought of the proposal that the State should hold the land ill trust for the people, there is, happily, substantial unanimity that the present or future holders on the .same lines should not be dispossessed without petting full compensation." Our Waikato contemporary, while pointing out that while we here m this country are worrying ourselves devising plans for settling the land and finding outlets for its products, our brethren m the Mother Country are asking themselves the the question, How shall we make our lands support our growing population ? — how shall we order mitters m regard to our land so ;U to bridge over the great gulf that yawns between the very rich and the very poor ? A remedy there must be found for the evils of the present system ; but it is clear that, m our time at least, it will not be based on the principle of robbing Peter to pay Paul.