REPLY TO " HARAPIPI."

Waikato Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 2842, 30 September 1890, Page 4

REPLY TO " HARAPIPI."

ro TUB EDITOK. snt, -Your correspondent Lfarapipi 1 ' in replying to my kilter, says that to bo consistent I must support the contention of other thine:*, hcpHns the unimproved value of land. But lam afrnifl ho is a little cloudy in his ideas, and is still somewhat in tho Hark as to the principles of the Single Tax. What I support is simply the appropriation by the State, of that which is created by the State, and by the State only, which would be the whole value of land—exclusive of improvements, for land has no value till the presence of population gives it a value, and as population increases, its value becomcs greater and greater. It is thus the labour of tho community which creates tho unimprov°d value of land, and no member of the community has a right to appropriate it. "Harapipi" draws a parallel between tho rise in the value of potatoes and the Bank of Now Zealand shares, andtheland values. If the State takes the one he says it sh juld take the other also ; but if he thinks so his ideas of right and wrong are mixed or it must bo apparent to all that the ed value of these shares was not created y ho State nor aided in the smallest degree by the the State, and that therefore the State has no right whatever to appropriate it. And so with tho rise in tho price of potatoes ; these potatoes were produced entirely by the farmers, and no one has any right to them but the farmers. The f-icfc that their value lias suddenly risen does not alter the case, for it was just as likely to full; the State can have no right whatever to this increased value, for increase of population brines increase of competition, and the farmer instead of getting more gets less. ]3ut with the large landowner who gets his living from rent the case is different, increase of population must raise his income, and that competition which grinds down tho farmer and labourer to lower, and yet lower depths of poverty, must inevitably raise rent,and the large landowner who lives by rent and does absolutely nothing becomes richer and richer, whereas those who live by labour become poorer and poorer. 41 lfarapipi " speaks of two brothers who came to Canterbury when the land was uninhabited, and bee.uise they both died too young to obtain any unearned increment, "liesays it would u> "robbery and plunder" tu Luke it from their heir. Certainly, if those brothers had created the unearned increment which has .sinefl accrued to their land, it would be very wrong indeed to take it from their heir, but as th<* ur.emiod increment is created entirely by the increase of population, 1 fill m'o hit claim to it, or th»; injustice in t it from him, lor the fact that thus.) I wo brothers were tlu lirst to c> iu■ *. to C Inry can tfivt; tbe'r heir no vi„'ht wliatevi'.i to the valuo which has been r.reaf.i I hv t'lov; who came alter them.

" ll.ini|ii|'i ' sialic that I said it wxs wrung I'M- ni'Mi I" in ;lci' money iu (1110 country .mil s|.»ii'l 11, in iii.il.l,<!r, ami then liu toils us fill to holder men from spending money wlr.Ti, it h not earned would bis interfering willi the liberty of a subject, would bo tint means of our death, h,, but he must be labouring under a sli-ht delusion, and Uμ bi'.t'ii wasting his power in foiling the air, as il happens that I never made snail a statement as llio one he lias taken siiuli pains to demolish, nor any statement the least lik-o it. All I a-ke.]' was that those absentees who own land in Now Zealand should pay for it at the same rate as those who live in tin; colony, which is a surely a reasonable demand. Sir, the State must have taxes, and it is sniely just to draw those taxes from the value which tin: State alone has created, but " ILirapipi" tells us it would bn " rot and plunder" to do so, and Rtigmati/.-M all who support such a propos.d as jnstitiers of plunderers, robbers, etc. lie would allow the value which the community has created to be appropriated liy private individual.- , , and would allow the State to draw its revenue from improvements, and forms of wealth created entirely by individual labour, and to which the State has no riu'ht whatever. Sir, this is the real confiscation, and to support such a. system is, to use his own words, to justify plunderers, yet this is the. doctrine he has so industriously propagated, and all who do not admit its justice are branded "rogues and fools." Fiet us hope that from teaching others, ho will come down to teaching himself, and when he wishes to find a rognci or a fool he will learn to look nearer home.—] iun, etc. (<koiv:ia\.