THE GEORGIAN THEORY.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2795, 12 June 1890, Page 2

THE GEORGIAN THEORY.

TO THE EDITOR, Sir,— I do not get your paper direct, and have just se<m a lettor signed "J. Pen " in your issue of the 20th inst. I don't know if it is his name or " nom de plume,"_but I thank him for the further information he volunteers of H. George's theory, which I take to be a fair sample and it may save me the infliction of reading the book, which seems to me to be a delusion and a snare, % phantasy, a vision of the night, a dream which cannot stand the light of reason, any more than weak eyes can stand the light of the sun, and to compare such ' froth and " fiction to the Sermon 'on the Mount is like comparing a common match with that luminary. But I have no desire to influence any one who may righteously think the writing may be the means of bettering the condition of our fellow men. Surely your corresponded cannot mean what he says when he accuses a respectable and most useful class of men of dishonesty of being possessed of " ill gotten gains." Until he can prove this foul impeachment he lays himself open to be considered a slanderer and a false accuser. Vague assertions of this kind are always cowardly and unmanly, and worse than without veracity. The pen, like the tongue, is an unruly member, and must be kept in check. "Mr J-Pen," in replying to a letter of mine, goes on to say, which, in justice, I will give in his own words; as Lain: sorry I cannot understand his argumeut: "The unearned increment on a potato or a bushel of wheat is the increase that is due to the laws of Nature, apart from the industry of the producer, and who dare to set a money value on the productive work of Providence, which is utterly beyond the control of man." Are we to believe a potato in not the work of Providenco, as well as the light and the air which causes it to grow, under certain conditions, which are the earth, which man has acquired by his labour, and which he has improved and manured, and seeded, so that "the earth may give her increase," and if any man dare to say the farmer has no right to the light and air, or as it is called the " increment," he will simply be laughed at, and if persisted in, may have his head shaved. And yet Mr J-Pen goes on to say "the farmer has only a right to what he has earned by his own labour," and so has no right to the bountiful gifts of Providence, the light and air, or the " unearned increment." It is fortunate the lawe of Providence are not like ths laws acccording to George, otherwise wo could not produce at all, and it is foolish as it is dishonest to make any such claim. As the increment on the potato is rather a difficult piint to establish, he goes on to say " the increment on the land can be seized, and is ui most cases seized by those who do not Work, or use tho land, but only to levy black mail on all who may wish to do it.

This sentence is rather obscure ; if applied to George and his tail it has some meaning, but none otherwise. His next grievance is " the settler must go beyond the verge of civilisation to get land on reasonable terms, and the consequences are the population is unnecessarily scattered, and the whole community plunged in debt to provide means of communication, which thus furnishes additional blackmail for the speculator. But really, this sort of,argument is not worth following out. I'would like to ask him if he thinks the town made the country, or the country the town, or how a country can be settled, if enterprising men did not go beyond the means of what he calls civilisation, and what tho town would bo if the country had not made the roads by selling and assessing the land, and when men go beyond the bounds of civilisation to settle on the land and make it valuable, is ib right for some to sit in towns with their coats on, who may never have done a day's work, and try to get money on such lands under false pretences, on land as honestly acquired and under greater hardships and difficulties than the coat on Mr J. Pen's back, but who will, and are able to stand up for other " jolly rights" as well as any kid-gloved man in the town. And who are the speculators he tilts at so glibly, like lion Quixote; at the wind-mill ? The farmers about Hamilton will, T am sure, be glad of an introduction to a few of them, as they have looked for them for years, and without theni fauns are being sold at a third of what they cost before tho railway was made, and I feel certain would give J. Pen a good commission if he could induce one of his speculators to buy. I believe H. George and his land fads are a great cause of our stagnation, a country is in a, poor pass, when bo one will speculate on itn future. It rotnams with Mr Pen to prove his charge, that a man fjoing out into the country and buying and improving land an J selling bis increase " at home »r abroad is a thief and a robber, a possessor of illgotten gains." Or cau he prove the soft handed, often muddle headed, town loafer, who tries to live by the cultivation of his wits and starves from the poverty of the soil and ineagerness of the crop, and who wishes to obtain the fanners' land under false pretences, does he consider such an honest man, T. M.