PROPERTY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 9494, 17 August 1891, Page 3

PROPERTY.

TO THE EDITOB. Sib,— Will you allow me, for the sake o£ an example I have to present, to revert to the Property question. Mr Hart gazes with admiring eye at tho picture of a working man who has by industry and thrift, acquired the property, on which he lives, and has then settled down to support Church and State, educate his children and otherwise carry out the functions commonly ascribed to the respectable and law-abiding citizen endowed with a professed belief in “ the inalienable right of purchased beef.” I may remark that if the possession of property had always been confined to what a man could himself actually use and enjoy, perhaps we should not now have inquisitive individuals poking the nose of investigation iqto the so-called “ rights ” of private property. But to my illustration: I heard incidentally a few days ago, of a poor woman, who, being unable to pay her rent, was distrained upon by order of the landlord, thus losing her few necessaries of life, including a machine which might have.; enabled her to earn a little money. The; landlord was quite within his rights, it* may be said. Possibly, but his rights! were another’s wrongs. Now, I contend! that if the State had been the landlord,! and had been blessed with an understand-: ing of the unity of its members, a case like 1 this would not have happened, because it; would have been seen that to deprive; anyone of tbeir means of livelihood on account of non-payment of rent, would not 1 improve the matter, but be merely shifting' the cost of maintenance from one shoulder, to another, and, if anything, making it 1 heavier. Under exiting conditions one person is allowed to hold more than he, himself can use, some of which is a necessity to others, and by virtue of that; necessity he can impose a tax on them fori the right of use. Then, if they fail to; pay, he can take such proceedings as mayl have the effect of thrusting these victims! still deeper into the struggling mass of] those whose death in life of misery andj wretchedness forms a dark background to; the deceptive glitter of our much-vaunted civilisation.—l am, &e., JOHN BENDELY. }