The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1909.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXI, Issue 7914, 30 September 1909, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1909.

The battle of the BritThe ieh Budget now afoot Battle m Great Britain is

of probably the most moThe British nientous of all recent Budget. bloodless battles waged within the confines of civilisation. It is really a battle for social betterment and human efficiency, as against the capitalistic ideal, which places money before men. Nor is it the outcome of a "Utopian dream or scheme, but of a great social, political and Liberal revival amongst the people of the Three Kingdoms. It is a proof that the people still hold the Liberal faith, -and are prepared to maintain Liberal principles and Liberal ideals. On its part, the Government has shown courage m the direction of national sobriety, national social progress, national education, and national finance, and has aimed at the accomplishment of the ideals of Liberalism. In fact, it is because the Government has actualised those ideals, that Liberalism is experiencing a great revival m Britain; and the other party, apparently like a certain personage m Scripture, is fighting fiercely and furiously because its days are few; or, at least, its ideals are being finally weighed m the balance and found wanting by the brain, the heart, and the conscience of the nation. Their'l argument is that property is to be taxed out of existence, but we are told m a message just received that Mr j Ure (the Solicitor-General for Scotland), m speaking at Gateshead, said he believed that the Country could get revenue, rising each year until it drew millions a year, out of the land without inflicting a particle of injustice on any human being. And, as Dr Clifford recently put it, "taxes are not m their nature robbery on the one hand or sacrifice on the other; they are simply payment for value. The taxation proposed by the Budget was just to the whole people, and the opposition to the Budget was emanating not from working men but from poor dukes and hig landowners. It was the most Christian Budget ever introduced. A nation that cared for its poor and aged would pass into the life of the ages, whereas a ' nation that allowed the hungry to go hungry, the naked to continue naked, and the feeblest of the people to be uncared for would go into the death of the ages." Then,, on the same occasion,, m alluding to unearned increment, Dr Clifford said that "there were m London places of worship .which had to be closed because they could not afford to pay the heavy fines and increased rental which were degßanded, when the leases expired: 3P&nd ought never to be m the exclusive possession of a few individuals; it should belong to the State, and the State must have it."

Of course' the notion that nil the land of the country belongs to the people, and that the State, as the people's trustee and executor, should own it m the people's name and utilise it m their common interest is an ideal the realisation of which is not thought of by the British Government. It is, however, part of the Government's policy that land which should be used so as to employ arid support the people but is not so used, should be specially taxed, with a view to its being applied to its right use. ' This is the principle which ie at the root of all the landlaws and land taxes of Australasia, and its object is to revive the hypothetical golden age of England itself "when every rood of ground maintained its man," and to insist that the soil of the country shall be devoted to practical \ise m the interest of the people, and not to game-keeping and other luxurious purposes by and for the rich. As Mr Lee Smith, m writing from Dunedin to an English paper says, "there is no getting away from the fact that the line of demarcation between the rich and the starvelings is getting more and more pronounced, and promises that, sooner or later, England will become a "home of plutocratio aristocrats and their dependants." It is to avert this calamity that Mr Lloyd George's Budget has been brought m; and the g#«?»lo of England know it. "Of c**m&" —as Mr Lee Smith further observes —"it is to be expected that the city and other wealthy interests should cry out," because the Budget is expressive of "the justice of throwing the onus of providing funds to satisfy the demands for war expenditure, old age pensions, and so forth, on those who can well afford to pay, especially the 'Trade.'" If these points are kept m mind by those who read the cable messages that come to hand day by day, each reader will be all the more able to fill m and read between the lines of all the news referring to the Battle of the Budget.