LAND CONFISCATION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3099, 26 May 1892, Page 2

LAND CONFISCATION.

♦ Thk following extract from one of Mr F. W. Ewington's vigorous letters to the Herald is worthy of being re-printed :— " I know Mr Withy to be an honourable man, aud feel sure that if he were not iu error, he would not advocate Henry George'B doctrine of spoliation. He believes he is right, just as Saul of Tarsus, when persecuting, believed he was right. Except for that how could he proclaim, amidst the plaudits of deluded hearers, Mr George's doctrine of confiscation ? For instance : Some New Zealand colonists have paid the Government over £13,000,000 for the land they own, and that was the fair market price at the time ; others got Crown grants as part of the bargain for risking their lives on the battle field ; others got Crown grants in consideration of their giving up situations and breaking up their homes in Britain to come here ; and the natives had their freeholds guaranteed to them by England, but now it is proposed to deprive them all of their land values or freehold tenure, and Mr Withy says that " ia right." In opposition to him I say it is wrong. It would be a great injustice whether done gradually or suddenly. If working men, farmers, Maoris, and laudowners generally are to be deprived of their land values without compensation, Jet it be done quickly. Do not torture them with a lingering process of spoliation, and do tell them what it all means. Tell them that Mr Hyndmau, the Socialist, says the nationalisation of capital would have to follow the nationalisation of land, and that A. R. Wallace says that the nationalisation of house-property would easily follow, and that only laudowaera would, under single tax, pay taxes to the State."