CORRESPONDENCE

Auckland Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 101, 29 April 1892, Page 4

CORRESPONDENCE

THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION

(To the Editor.) Sic —Wβ have read Mr Hastie's letter in this' evening's Star with great Burprieo The right of the National Association to expound its views in ibsown and its own manner" ia unquestioned, butthefact that ib refrained from accepting a courteouo invitation to meet Ice opponents is equally clear. Our meetings have hitherto been held in the Wesley Half, and the National Association had nob the riigbtesto reason ior assuming that wo wished She debate to be hold in tho rooms of the L.ibera* Association-m fact, both date and locality were purposely leifc opera, and we were prepared to do our beat to accommodate them on both points, tfuc the most surprising thing iv Mr Haefcie s letter is the assertion that there is no principle involved in the question 01 •'perpetual lease" versa* •'froeho d tenure!" Why. sir, ib is absolutely a question of "principle" alone, and ot nothing else. It is the principle of aimple justice", and of the right of mankind to the use of the earth ! Freehold tenure, as advocated by the National Association, permits the export of food from Russia and Ireland to pay rent to landowners, while tho producers starve. We wish to debate the principle under which that sorb of thing is possible. We say that it must be distinctly a bad principle, and we advocate " perpetual lease " as more equitable, and, therefore, preferable. We say that capital and labour combined produce all wealth; that "land " is not "capital, and that therefore the landowner—aa such —has no moral right to share in that wealth, and that " perpetual lease would rectify the misappropriation of wealth. Sureiv, that '-principle" is clear enough. Working on tho evil principle of unconditional " freehold tenure we have piled the wealth at one end of the "world battery" and tho hunger at the other until an explosion is imminent. We seek to apply a "principle" which may avert such perils from our adopted country, and that principle is that " between man and man, labour values alone should be kr/al tender. That is snrely a clear-cut and luminous " principle," and it is the principle of the " perpetual lease. What moro does Air Hastie want?—We are, sir, for the Anti-Poverty Society, Adam Kelly, vice-president F. G. Platt, hon. secretary April 27th, 1892.