MEANING OF THE SINGLE TAX.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 18, 23 January 1933, Page 6

MEANING OF THE SINGLE TAX.

Every single taxer will agree "with your correspondent "Sin© Nomine" when he declares "it is absolutely necessary t'hat he (man) should in pursuance of his inherited right as one of the people possess an absolute assured and exclusive tenure of sufficient land for habitation and industrial purposes not only for himself but for his progeny." Ifi "Sine Nomine" will stick to that I promise him my hearty support. It is the natural right to the use of the earth that single taxere- have always proclaimed. We think it could be achieved by the public collection of ground rent which would eliminate the incentive to the aggregation and monopoly of land. Have we got it? Doesr the existing system of private ownership •that "Sine Nomine" supports secure it? Is it not a fact that under present conditions the masses of the people everywhere are disinherited and landless and that they can provide necessary and engage in industrial pursuits for the benefit of themselves amdtheir children only by permission of the privileged owners of the soil who collect from them a large part of the product of their labour in the form of rent? Regarding the distribution of wealth, about which "Sine Nomine" inquires, >. I repeat that under a single tax regime *tli6/ ~ whole product of labour would belong to the " labourer. We would not attempt to apportion or distribute rewards. There ' would be no. need. With public revenue provided by the land rent fund and rates and taxes abolished in consequence there would bo no deductionsfrom the wages of labour, and wealth would remain in the hands of those by whom it was produced, either for consumption or exchange. The factors in the production of wealth are , labour and land. Given access to natural i; opportunities, labour could please itself. Lazy and industrious alike would receive results proportioned to their respective activities. "If a man work not neither should he eat." "Sine Nomine" seems to have no complaint against the idle people at the other end of the social system who live on the rent of land. Regarding "confiscation," the dictum of Herbert Spencer might interest your correspondent. In "Social Statics," chapter 9, page 9, he says: "It may by and by be perceived that equity utters dictates to which we have not listened and men nlay then learn that to deprive others of their rights to the use of the earth is to commit a crime inferior" only in wickedness •to the crime ofi taking away their lives or personal liberties." G. HENRY. .