Heard and Said
Maoriland Worker, Volume 9, Issue 348, 9 January 1918, Page 1
About this newspaper
Heard and Said
That ou the evening of tho last day of the King's visit in Lanarkshire, the Glasgow "Evening Times'" came out with a scare about the King and Peace. Thp King was sensationally represented as assuring a group of workmen that NO ONE WOULD BE MORE PLEASED THAN HIMSELF WHEN PEACE WAS DECLARED! During the night something happened. Tbe next morning's press had nothing about the King's sensational declaration. That a Atr. D'Arcy has left .£984,000, and a Mr. Brightman (a shipbroker) .£550,000. The latter was, it will be observed, a compartively poor man, says "Justice."
That a debt-collector at Dunodin kept back .£l2 Bs., and the magistrate ordered the accused reformative treatment for three years. On that basis ?ome of the profiteers who have kept back thousands should get life sentences here and hard labor in the Tophet stokehold in the hereaffe ,, . That among the cables of sympathy received by William Morris Hughes on the failure of his conscription scheme were messages from Messrs. Massey and and Allen, but they were mairked "confidential."
That the Rev. Howard Elliott also cabled his gmypathy on behalf of the Protestant Political Association. That the learned editors of our learned daily press are wondering whether after all they real.ly do represent a majority of the people of this country. That more than one member of Parliament is beginning to feel uneasy in connection with the next election. That members of the elective Chamber are wishing that the war would end soon in the hope that the electors may have time to forget about conscription. That the National Government is already seriously considering a good political cry with which to side-track their own misdeeds at the next election. That a certain sectarian political organisation is the creation of the Reform Party for the ; purpose ol" dividing the workers politically and saving the Tories at the polls. Thut certain political "shrewdies" are thinking of compulsory insurance oa the Lloyd George plan as an issue for the Fusion Government at the next election. That from the point of view of the Viisionidte this i* un admirable idea for several reasons. That the late Sit , Harry Atkinson was in favor of compulsory insurance on the German model, while Sir Joseph Ward is the author of the National Piovident scheme (so-called). That it is thus considered by the aforesaid "shrewdies" that both parties could unite at the next election on the issue of compulsory insurance. That Labor is the sole'producer of valuer That all values, therefore, are the earnings of Labor. That Labor is entitled, to the whole of its product, that i 3 to say to all- the wealth of any given country. That the man who wants more than his full earnings is at heart a thief, but the man who is satisfied with less is a ooivard That Mr. Harold Beauchamp, Chairman oi' the Bank of New Zealand directorate made an interesting speech the other day. That people are asking whether Mr. Beauehanvp is our Auxiliary Minister of Finance, and whether the Bank of New Zealand directorate is a wing of the National Government. That Mr. Beauobamp's complaint on behalf of the payers of land and incometax almost moved his audience of . directors and inflated shareholders to tears. That his statement that land cannot well bear further taxation is misleading because there is a fundamental difference between the taxation of land and the taxation of land-values. That if Mr. Beauohamp turned up page 32 of the November Abstract of Statistics, he would find that the unimproved value of land in New Zealand rose from .£150,006,000 (using , round figures in 1907 *o .£228,500,000 in 1911. That since 1914 —that is to say since the outbreak of war—the unimproved value of the land of this country has •risen from .£228,500,000 to .£241,300,000. That the whole of this vast fund is a community-created, value, and hence belongs.to the people. That if it were taxed as it ought to be taxed, there would be ample revenue from that source alone for all purposes. That rather than tax that fund as it should be taxed, the so-called National Government prefers to tax tea! That, although the Customs revenue now exceeds .£4,000,000 per annum, Mr. Harold Beauchamp has the impudence to forecast further Customs taxation next session.
That his suggestion is merely a pilot balloon for the National Government. That unless a protest is made in time, the Government will ask Parliament to increase the Customs tax next session.
