The Daily News. MONDAY, DECEMBER 30. COMMUNISM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 305, 30 December 1907, Page 2

The Daily News. MONDAY, DECEMBER 30. COMMUNISM.

■All win) have brought- thought to bear ! are agreed 111-, it Hit' family wa> tin- lirsl j inception--the fonndat inn oi' tin- sociil i fabric, l'rimyval man tuok a woman to live u-itli liim a- If., wife, and (lie humc ! —wile and children-constituted a sooety. Then dim-nut families a-ircf-atcd, the yoiinjr people intcnnarnedpaNtF tlius the tnhr developed into a larj»i-r family holding |iro|iorly in common, tin- strongest, tin- most, ctilining, shrewd, acceptin«; leadership and beiu.j; re-vanl-l :h chief. Then joined the lribe.< aild the nation was established at thy head of which stood the kin". The

(iaels of Seotland, the I'ynans o} Wales, 1 tile Celts of Ireland, ollered eous|)ieuous illustrations of the history of this ile- I \elopiueut. wliieh indted was common t.,> i all lands. Turning; attentionto the great ! mother of nations, the fountain from i ivhich all knowledge in ancient day* was |

derived. Kgypt, on examination, it will I he found that the system upon which it subsisted wan essentially eoniiministic. A ma*, when he married, was given a plot of land upon which to sustain himself and the children that might be ex|»ected to come to him, but in return to surrender a certain proportion to the State. It was through the labor thus rendered available and the employment of slaves won by war, that the ancient hfTyptians were enabled to carry out the astonishing works memorials of which they have left behind them—the wonderful canals and irrigation systems, the immense pyramids, the magnificent sculptures and the splendid temples and cities that once adorned the hanks of the Xile. For thousand, of years Kgypt flourished under a communistic system, but the system at length broke down, as all human systems inevitably must. The exactions levied upon the people liecame too constant and severe, they were taken away from the practice of arms and the | arts associated with national self-de-fence, and as a consequence Egypt became the playground of the spoiler.

Readers of Priscott's "Conquests" can scarcely have failed to notice that, prior to the advent of the Spaniards, the systems that obtained in both Mexico and Peru were precisely similar to that which ruled in Egypt in olden days. A man on his marriage had bestowed upon him and a dwelling, but one-half of his labor wjis claimed by the State. The Mexican* iui<] the Peruvians li.nl splendid temple*, convents, cities, roads running for thousand* of miles, bridges, ! canals and irrigation works executed through the extorted labor of ihe people. The exactions of an extravagant vourt, and the still move cruel extortions of a perfectly unscrupulous priesthood, however. turned a system that was sound in principle into an unmitigated curse. There are lessons in these faei*. There is no human system in which a modicum of good may not be found; there is no human system which may not be turned to abomliiaii'oQ.

In China and India similar comiiiiuiistic systems once prevailed, the great wall and thousands of miles of magnificent canals being carried to completion under it. In IVew Zealand and some other islands of the South Seas the communistie system is found in full iteration amongst the Maori*, and it is a striking fact that whatever other faults, vices, or crimes may be charged against the race as yet 110 denunciations have been hurled against their once well-ordered communism. Vnlike the Egyptians, more happily circumstanced than the Jfevicatw and Peruvians, with 110 despotic king, no spurious aristocracy, no greedy, grasping, iusatiablc priesthood to feed and fatten on the people, the communistic principle amongst the Maoris was an undoubted 'Success. To those who urge that to aiiopt the communistic principle to-day wouhj be in the nature of attempting to carry the world back to primeval days no answer can be made. If there is any argument in the statement it must lie allowed to stand. What has been here set forth is merely a brief attempt to clear the ground. The efforts which, in more recent years, havif )>cen made to establish society upon a communistic basis call for independent notice, and will be dealt with another day.