OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2781, 10 May 1890, Page 6 (Supplement)

OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Mr George has left us, and the weather has cleared up. Business is very quiet, and politics in the metropolis are in a state of suspense. The leaders of both sides are in the country. They sing very different ditties, but tho burden of thi-ir songs amounts virtually to the same things. That whioh has been shall be, only much more abundantly. No matter whether we have protection or free trade, as long as a non-productive landowning class is permitted to skim the cream from the joint produce of capital and labour, so long will deserving poverty suffer distress. Vicious, self-indulgent and improvident poverty will suffer distress anyhow, even with Henry George us dictator, and it is a wise and merciful provision, that so it is. But the fact that in a now country like this, with millions of acres of rich and fertile land virtually unimproved, capital and labour should be compelled to lie idle side by side, becauso of land monopoly, is a portent whioh might penetrate the skull of a Parkes, or of a Dibbs, and set his ingenuity to work to devise a remedy. But it does not penetrate, and apparently it will not, until the outraged conscience and common 80USO of tho people drive it home. An acute observer once remarked: — "Governments are always as bad as the people will let them be." And in this regard the people have let them be very bad indeed. Let us hope lhafc the time for improvement is at hand and that at the next general election every candidate will be compelled to declare his views on a land tax, levied, on unimproved value and not on improvements. It must be moderate in amount to begin with. It may a.dmit of exemptions on the income-tax principle at one end and of cumulative imposts at the other. But let the administrators of the State begin to take some practical steps to claim for the public that which was created by the public and which belongs to the public. And let those who see the justice aud wisdom of the demand unite to regard as unfaithful shirkers of their trust every political party which refuses to maintain the rights of the people in this matter. Not everyone, of course, can see it. Some are blinded by one thing, some by another. Some are so much engaged with other wrongs which afflict humanity that they have no time nor attention to spare for this one and what they won't steadily look at thoy can't possibly see. Some are blinded by a religious bias, some by political bias. Some are sunk in fatalistic apathy, others are bliuded by partisan rancour. Yet others have the " wool drawn over their eyes" by their own pecuniary interests and some by that gratuitous " cussedness" which opposes whatover is good and true on account of its very truth and justice. But notwithstanding the blindness of those who can't sec or won't soe tho great truth stands out plain and clear in God's moral daylight. That which the State creates belongs to tho State" in trust for all its members. The State creates the unearned increment in the value of land, and as long as it neglects j to assert its right it allows that which should be a general blessing and benefit to become a curse and a hindrance to progress and a means of. extortion. No man is compelled to pin his faith to Mr George or Mr Syme. But the broad ethical principle which they see is as open to the mental vision of every candid enquirer as tfse sun at clear noonday to their bodily optica. That men who desire to bring in the reign of honesty should be branded as thieves is only a repetition by j the modern Pharisees of the crime which was perpetrated by their prototypes eighteen centuries ago. History repeats itself, and all giant abuses, if the prescriptive and vested rights which they havo conferred are only of sufficiently long standing, are able to fiud defenders who look upon them as exactly opposite to what they are. So it was with slavery, with rotten boroughs, with depotic Government, and a host of other abuses which nevertheless have been triumphantly reformed. Itis just as easy atthis day as it ever was to advance fallacious objections against right-doing. But there is uo more reason now than then why we should allow ourselves to be blinded by them.

Business is very quiet, merchants feeliug their way cautiously, and not caring to do much business except such as they are assured is thoroughly sound. The floods and tho long continued wet weather have had a disastrous effect in many country districts. Besides the blow which in many instances has been given to individual credit and which has caused some storekeepers (from the north especially) to como to Sydnoy to make arrangements with their creditors, all outdoor work has been greatly checked. The loads and the grounds have becorao so soaked and boggy that it has been impossible for carriers to bring supplies to the stations, impossible for squatters to get materials for fencing and other improvements on to the laud, and impossible for farmers to carry on their outdoor agricultural operations. Even some of the mines have been flooded. Under these circumstances it is uot surprising that trade has been dull. But as the weather is now fine, with every appearance of continuancy, it is expected that there will bo a great revival after the holidays. It is known that stocks in the country are very low, owing to the impossibility of replenishing tbem. Pitiful accounts come oven from considerable township* of privations caused by the stoppage of traffic. In one place there is no flour, in another they are sweetening their tea with treacle, and in a third they have no tea to sweeten. All this will be changed with the advent of fine weather, and it is confidently expected that the mercantile resources of the metropolis are about to be drawn upon in a manner that of Into years has been almost unkuown. It is true that we have all been expecting this improvement for a long time, and that hitherto has been postponed, chiefly through rnouetary pressure and the unfavourable woather. But it must come sooner or | Inter. I only hope that when it does < appear people will not lose their heads and pervert it into a " boom," or inflate it i into a bubble.

The revenue returns for the quarter are not encouraging. As compared with the corresponding quarter of last year they show an increase, it is true. But it is an increase of only about 2h per cent, whereas the increase in reputation is about 4 per cent. Tho fact is, and it is folly to attempt to conceal or deny it, the colony has been passing through a very bad time. It has, however, I hope, like the winter in the order of seasons, been a time of recuperation, a time of getting back from unhealthy excitement attendant on the expenditure of borrowed money to the more solid and more productive pursuits which arc marked out in the nature of things as being specially appropriate to a new country. If only the monopolisation of land had been rendered impossible, «r at least unprofitable, by a smart tax on unimproved values, tho progress of the colony would have been more marked and more rapid.

Seme of the weak spots of our banking system are being brought into prominence' just now. The insolvent estate of Mr E. H. Taylor is occupying the attention of the Court. Mr Taylor himself is a prisoner in Darlinghurst gaol. Very few years ago he was a clerk in an Accountant's office. Since that time he has been a partner ivi his employers' business, and has also transacted business on his own account. But what he will chiefly be remembered for is that he managed to obtain advances of almost fabulous amounts from the banks. One of the financial institutions with which he had dealings claims about £130,000 from the estate. The manager appears to be under the impression that the whole of this enormous sum was secured, though how or where his customer could have obtained

possession of solid securities to such an amount or extent must have been a puzzling and critical question. I need hardly say that it is now very doubtful

whether the securities will cover the advance, and it is still more doubtful whether the other persons interested in them, that ia to say, Taylor's unsecured creditors, will receive anything at all.