MR. KIRKBRIDE AND THE ANTIPOVERTY SOCIETY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8388, 16 October 1890, Page 3

MR. KIRKBRIDE AND THE ANTIPOVERTY SOCIETY.

TO THE EDITOH. Sir,—Seeing that Mr. Kirkbride persists in the statement that we made a definite proposal that 4s 2d in the £ should be the rate of the proposed land tax, the undersigned members of the A. P. Society, who were present at the meeting referred to, desire to call Mr. Kirkbride's attention to the following facts : —l. That, by the wording of their own advertisement of the Mangere meeting, the Farmers' Club spoke of us as advocates of "the single tax." 2. That the fact of Sir George Grey's land tax being

|d in the £ and the South Australian rate being the same was certainly mentioned, bub only by way of illustration. 3. That* reports, prepared independently by two of our members, without any reference to each other, were published in the Star and thu Herald on the 6th and 7th of May last, and in neither of them is there any mention of any rate being proposed. 4. That no exception was taken to either of these reports by any member of the Farmers' Club. And 5. That no motion or resolution was brought before the meeting at all, although there was some suggestion made that a resolution should be moved to test the feeling of the meeting, but the Chairman ruled it out of order. We thefefore cannot admit Mr. Kirkbride's charge of inconsistency. We went to Mangere to advocate the justice of the general principle of a land tax, and in that we believe we were not wholly unsuccessful. The question of its amount is a detail which must be settled by other and minor considerations. .Justico demands the full annual value of the land, exclusive of all improvements ; policy and expediency suggest that this should only be taken by degrees; compromise and mutual concessions must settle what those degrees shall be.—We are, etc., Adam Kelly George Warburton Alfred Cowley B. C. Bicale | F. G. Platt i Harry VV. Farnall.