SOLDIER SARGENT AND SINGLE TAX.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 April 1917, Page 7

SOLDIER SARGENT AND SINGLE TAX.

To the Editor. Sir,—.l desire to congratulate the above writer on hia very able letter on Single Tax, which appears in your issue of April 20. X have thought 011 Single lax off and on since the time thai Henry George brought out hia remarkable book, called "Progress and Poverty." I thought then, and I think now, (hat Mr George made the mistake of ins life when he assumed that property in land was the greatest on earth; whereas it is as clear as aay that, not land but money is the greatest power in every country on tho gfolie. "Money makes the inare to go, whether she's a tail or nb!" That proverb doubtless means that a rich man can get a good price for a questionable animal, which, in the hands of q, poor man could not be got rid of as a gift. Any man with plenty of money can get all tho land he cares to have in any country under the sun. The Hon. George Fowlds, Professor Simpson, and Seldicr Sargent a'll talk half boastfully of Yucatan. And what is Yucatan but a small province at theBouth end of Mexico, where Villa, and Carranza have been busily employed getting the inhabitants to murder each other year after year for goodness' knows how long now! Just imagine three such experts in Single Tax holding up any part of Mexico as an example to New Zealand ®r any other sane spot on the map! Pretty hard up for an example of the success of Single Tax, when they have to run away to the hottest end of Mexico to sugar a pill that no, sano country cares t» swallow! 'At the slavt in New Zaaland, the Maoris and the Government owned all tire land, but neither party had any money worth mentioning. Under ' Single Tax, liow much would the revenue for the year then amount to? Nothing at all. Under such conditions would it have been possible to have made, any progress? Any schoolboy ought to be able to sfnswer that no possible progress could be made under such Conditions. ! These things being so, it follows as a matter of course that' had New Zealand been under Single Tax from the start, then the Hon. Geo. Fowlds would never have been troubled to come here; could not have' made a fortune by selling drapory in Auckland; could never have been a. Minister and member of Parliament in Wellington; coul'd not now be the Hon, George Fowlds, "ex-Minister, present champion of tho Labor Party, leading economist, a*d president of the Land Values League of New Zealand," as our friend Soldier Sargent gradiloqucntly calls him! Moreo7er, under such conditions, who shall say that either .Professor Simpson, or our respected Soldier, would have ever. seen the light of day or the Durham road? It iß.a moral certainty that neither would. Changed conditions produce changed productions always. Please observe also, that the then unknown Mr John Payne put the Hon. George Fowlds and Single Tax clean out of Parliament; kept him and it out at last election, and will undoubtedly beat him and worse than ever next time, if tho Hon. George is foolish enough to again pit. himself against the redoubtable Payne. I hope to see tlic war over and done with before Soldier Sargent reaches the trenches, and that lift may return safe and sound, and all the better for his trip abroad. If he looks closely into it, he will find that Single Tax is an impossible/fad; and that a graduated land tax can be made to answer every purpose that the State can require. Nationalisation of the land in New Zealand is as uncalled for, as it ia impossible; and the free importation of every kind of. goods stands in exactly the same position, as-a moment's consideration ought to convince any intelligent, unbiassed person. Why, the Utter would clsse every industrial concern in the country in one act. —I am, etc.,

J. 0. TAYLOR. Waiongona, April 20, 1917.