MR. KIRKBRIDE AND THE SINGLE-TAX.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9488, 18 April 1894, Page 3

MR. KIRKBRIDE AND THE SINGLETAX.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,— your issue of llth inat. Mr. Kirkbride asks us to give a literal quotation in support of our assertion that he had said in one of his letters " that it was only townspeople who said land was too dear." From his letter which appeared in your issue of 26th September, 1892, we take the following:—" Farmers name to the conclusion long ago that this outcry about dear land, and inaccessible land, does not generally emanate from those who really want to settle on land, but from men who rather love to" walk on the pavement in Queen-street and advocate a good swinging land tax that would make so-and-so in Epsom drop his land like a hot spud." Wo think Mr. Kirkbride will admit that our words gave the gist of what he said, accurately and mildly. We have never argued that the single-tax will benefit land speculators or land-owners, as such :—but we maintain, and we challenge Mr. Kirkbride to disprove the assertion, that it would immensely benefit laud-wsers, by making it impossible for mere land-ownership either in town or country, to limit industry or to take toll of its produce. We should be glad if Mr. Kirkbride would explain how or why a land-value tax would make an Epsom land-owner " drop his land like a hot spud " any more than land-owners in Queen-street adjoining the pavement he refers to; the argument would be instructive. —As soon as Mr. Kirkbride can show how a land-value tax will injuriously affect one part of the colony more than another, or will sacrifice the country to the town, or will take from the worker the wealth that he produces, we will give up advocating the change in the method of taxation we now contend for and join the National Association. Does Mr. Kirkbride find it easier to sneer at social problems than to discuss them on ethical grounds?— We are, sir, for the Ground Rent Revenue League, - Adam Kelly (in the absence of the President), James Batty, Secretary. ,