STARLIGHT.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXVII, Issue 3, 5 January 1891, Page 3

STARLIGHT.

_ %. IO THE EDITOB. Sib, — Your contemporary, the Star of Kaikoura, wishes to know "how Single Tax advocates will tax rain." It is, to say the least, rather absurd to ask Single Taxers how a thing they know to be impossible is to be accomplished. The Star has evidently Been it m print, or teen told, that Single Taxers propose to tax land, and his argument is that, if land can be taxed, then rain can also, and should be, taxed. lam quite willing to admit that if land can be taxed, so can rain, and will undertake to show how, as soon as any opponent of the Single Tax has shown how land, or anything on or from it, other than buman labour, can be taxed. The Star says that " without rain land is valueless." Does he forget that it is equally valueless without air, light, and heat ? Does he forget that the man who ha 3by human laws and devices succeeded m grabbing the largest quantity of land, is virtually possessor of equal proportions of the other natural elements so necessary to give value to his (?) land. Does he forget that as such, possessor, he is enabled to, and actually dees, fas the labor pf qth,eri \6 the "full annual value of the monopoly he holds, Can the Star tell us why a tax on land values reduces the cost of land to the user, while on the other hand a tax on the value of commodities makes them dearer. If taxing land values makes land cheaper, and taxing commodities makes them dearer, how long does he suppose that consumers, who pay both these rental values to the land ownera, and taxes on commodities to the State, will consent to such a system of double taxation? Will they not naturally insi3t on raising the required revenue, by a tax on the thing with which taxation agrees so wel ! , that the higher the tax the greater the reduction m the cost oi the thing taxed. Did the Star ever, or can it cow, realise the fact that m the search for truth,- we must forget the prejudices that have insensibly b^t nQnetheieua-surely he^n. for^ied m our rnindsj prejudices bo String, that they- prevent ua Eeeing the Simple truth, till we resolutely cut loose |r,Qm them,- and. determine to think and

reason from natural, and therefore absolutely logical premises, such as, That all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that equally entitle them to, Ist, the use and enjoyment of what God has created ; 2nd, any value resulting from the growth and improvement of the community, of which they form a part, and lastly the full value of whatever their labour produces. Will the Star, of Kaikoura, show how the taxation of rain will enable us to wreste these inalienable rights from the rapacious and tenacious talons of monopoly. — I am, etc, Economist. Picton, December 31st.