THE EXODUS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 3003, 13 October 1891, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE EXODUS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sib,—l have never felt it as an evil that numbers of our population are leaving our ehoree for other lands. It is quite true and cannot be denied that if our £3,000,000 of taxes were divided among one million of colonists instead of half a million, it would only amount to half its present burden. That cannot be denied. But, Mr Editor, the very opposite is also true, that is, that it would be double as much to each individually if the population was one million instead of half a million. Mr Editor, to every proposition there is always an if, and this if is what suckling philosophers and politicians do not and cannot understand. If a population of one million were composed of half a million of thriving inhabitants and half a million of non-thriving, then I say that half a million of thriving population, without the addition of the other half a million of non-thriving, would be much less taxed individually than the whole million would be individually. Ti« true that one million would pay more Custom duties than half a million if all were thriving, and might, perhaps, do so if all were not thriving ; but the gain would be email in comparison to the loss which would enaue to the thriving by their having directly and indirectly to support those who are not thriving. It a population of one-half bo thriving and one-half be not thriving, there is no getting out of the truth that the half a milium who are not thriving are a drain and a strain upon the half a million who are thriving. So much for the exodus. I will now come to bursters of big estates and show that " ifs " have also to come into consideration. It is true, and cannot be denied, that a poor man who takes up a bit of land, and who by thrift and selfdenial makes a home for himself, adds to the wealth of the community. In this country I have seen some of such, but in xVmenca I have seen thousands. It is also true, and cannot be denied, that men may go ou to land and make homes for themselves aud be a source of poverty to the country. The difference lies in "if." If a poor mau makee a home for himself, at no expanse to the country, as I have seen some do here, and a million do so in America, then is he all profit to the country ; but if a poor man makes a home for himself, at the expense of the country, then he is all loss to the country. Every village j settler artificially placed on land is a source of poverty to the community, because his cost h greater than the profit. The revenue ! derived from him in the future will nob ! make up for the interest upon the cost of j his being artifically placed on the land ; toF I every shilling gained from him in the future j there will be two shillings of interest to j pay upon the original outlay. Mr Editor, ' as a rule I have always found that young j colonial schoolmasters are great, great j adtr.irers of SirG. Grey and Henry George; i like a school boy repeating a lesson, these young schoolmasters can repeat a repeti- j tion upon the beauties of bursting j up big estates. I will tell these bud- j ding philosophers what their position would be if there were no bi* ostites in New Zealand. If time were no big estates here, there would be no fine Hchoolhouses or school teachers' dwellings. It may be said chat it was Vogel petting ! the money from England that built these j erections; but, ye sucking politicians, can j ye not see that if there had been no big , estates there could have been no money j from England? England is very ready lending money, but still she will nut uive it ( without having something aa a set off for \ this money given or lent. If there had ! been no big estate* to show, wo would not ; have got the money, for if there hail not been the big estates there would have been nothing; and now, even now, if it were not for the big estates we could not pav the interest. Nov. even now, the big estates are still the wealth producers of the country. I will tell thene young scliuolinaatern what their position wuulfl be if there ware no big estates;. Instead of their having £150 per year for a country school, they would have about three and sixpence. per week, gathered in pennies from eacli of the scholar*, with the addition of boarding a week at a time in each of the scholar's parents' shanty—for without the bisr|cstates : it would be a_ shanty. The "grub" would bo in proportion, and in keeping with tho .shanty. My yowng .scholastic Greyites ami Georgians, how would you like that? I i;ue.ss the schoolmistress would then dunce less upon the lk'ht .fantastic toe. That would bo an evil, for it would bo :i weary world if all wa«* work and no play; that it is not so here in New Zealand is all owing to the big estates.—l am, etc., Harapkpe. : P.S.—lt would be better that the end of ; the world was at hand than that the world , should continue with the doctrine in force j which Mr Parr advocates, that doctrine { being that what is good for one should be j the doctrine which is to rule man. Mr Parr j in his Saturday's letter says one told him j that under the Government Lind Tax he i had to pay less than under the Property Tax. It does not follow because such hso that it should be so. Wβ will suppose the • one referred to by Mr Parr holds 200 \ acrea. Will this L'oo-acre man, along with Mr Purr, think that he should pay a halfpenny per acre more than the 50-acre man for road rates? By the one 200-aere man l/ayincr halfpenny more per acre it would j enable four 50-acre men to pay a halfpenny ; per aero leas. 1 hat this IiOO-aore pays less j is owing to the larger man paying more. There are an ''upper ten" in Hamilton ; aud there are a "lower ten." Will Mr \ Parr, who belongs to the "upper ten," \ admit that ho should pay fourpence for a, copy of Thk Waikato Timks because in duing ho he would enable four of the " lower ; ten " to buy the Turns for a halfpenny has. Mr Parr will say I am going into absurdities I atu not doing so ; I atn only logically showing how he is absurd. What is good for a suction of the community may not be right. Right must cou.e in preferouce to pood, and the sooner this is understood the bettor it will be.—H.