THE STATE AS A LANDLORD.

Te Aroha News, Volume VIII, Issue 485, 2 July 1890, Page 2

THE STATE AS A LANDLORD.

Mr Henry George’s theories with regard to the nationalisation of land (says the Australasian), are liable to he rudely shattered when they come into collision with actual facts. It was formerly the practice of the United States Government to lease large portions of the public domain, and to grant the lessees the privilege of obtaining the fee simple of their holdings on payment of a small yearly sum of money. The persons who settled on the land in this way were tens of thousands in number, and they soon combined in the various States, and brought pressure to bear on their lepresentatives in tiie Lower House at Washington, to move the 'Administration of the day to cancel the debts thus owing to I lie public Treasury, In the indicias to the statute books of Congress will lie found the dates antititles of dozens of Acts passed for the purpose of “relieving” these lessees of their obligations to the State, or in other words for making them a free gift of the land. And now we observe also that in New Zealand numerous selectors under a system of deferred payments are strongly agitating for a reduction or remission of the balance due to the Government. This is exactly what is to be expected in any country in which the majority rules, when that majority occupies lands or tenements adinini tered by the State. A general disposition to get rid of the burden of rent oi to reduce it to ridiculous minimum naturally prevails under the circumstances. And with a Legislature elected by these tenents of the Government, what would it do but obey their mandates ? The men in office might exclaim, “ Where is the revenue to come from?” And the answer would be, “ That is your affair, not ours ; we must comply with the wishes of our constituencies or they will reject us at the next election.” As a natural result the unfortunate Treasurer, for the time being, who might endeavour to work out Mr George’s theories would find himself, as was once said of a Chancellor of the Exchequer in the House of Commons, “ seated by the side of a bottomless deficit fishing for a budget," while the creditors of the State would be tempted to connect some very strong maledictions with the name and doctrines of Mr Henry George.