"VINDEX" AND TAXATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11057, 8 May 1899, Page 7

"VINDEX" AND TAXATION.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — Your correspondent " Vindex" louche* high-water mark in the humorous line when hr proceeds to lecture mo on not rocosnisin<? "that in all discussions on social quo-dors it is of supreme importance that the language should ho clear and exact." 'I In.- i.- wry funny from a writer who evidently does not understand the difference between " using value" and "exchangeable" nr "economic value." For example, he tries to refute my statement that "all land values are created by tho community or State," by saying that " each fanner ban almost, get a living from his farm even if the rest of tho community sank out of existence, unless we. call the farmer himself a community." If ho wero not confused over the meaning of die term "value," used in an economic erase, ho would have, seen that with a community of one (i.e., tho farmer) there could he no land value. The air wo breathe is ono of the most valuable possessions of the race, but it has no exchangeable value apart from land. Economic loud value, tho only value proposed to ho taxed, begins and grows with the beginning and growth of the community. As IV- deduct the vahw of all improvements due to 'he individual, before arriving at the land value, it would be interesting to know who creates the latter if not the community. Regarding confiscation. To tho man who has oni two half-crowns in ids pocket, and ii compelled to pay one as ground rent, and tho other as duly on necessaries of life, it matter little which of the two payment* best answers to the dictionary definition of confiscation, but when he realises that the second payment is only rendered necessary by the injustice which takes the first, ho may well declare that so far as he is concerned there is no difference between them. Tho first is purely penal because no equivalent is given, and the second is penal, being the punishment he suffers for his stupidity in paying the first.

If singlo-taxers proposed to tako any tangible article from tho producer or owner of that article, the claim for compensation as set up by J. H. Levy would bo just and reasonable, and also easily assessed by the cost of producing a similar article, but land ib altogether different. It oannot even be compared with " the case ol emancipation" mentioned by Levy, because there is no third party to pay ransom for our wage slaves as the British public did for negroes. (By the way, it would be interesting tc know how much British wage slaves have paid in interest on the ransom of their black brothers). It is obvious that if we give bonds to the landlords for what they are pleased to call their land value, we shall merely be paying ground-rent to private individuals undo another name. It is absurd to ask those who puffer from a wrong to pay the capitalized cash value of that wrong. If the holders of existing wealth arc prepared to indemnify the landlords, and give us the benefits of the single tax right away, well and good; but don't mock the victims of landlordism by asking them to give bonds for the value of the. rod that scourges, and the chains that bind them. I regret the unworthy sneer about "the great Creator if " Vindcx" had any arguments to show that the law of rent or "unearned increment" to which I had referred was losr a law of the universe than the law of gravitation, 01 had a different author, then he should have produced them. My idea of lb., moral law from which I deduce the public right to ground rent, is the idea of reciprocity, the law of service for service, which I see prevailing throughout the universe. That law of justice lies at the heart of things, it- is the spiritual equivalent of the. law of gravitation, but wo allow people to "contract out" of that law, and must expect social chaos as a result. lam surprised that " Vindex" should venture on such a shallow argument as- comparing „ tradesman's profit with a landowners ground rent. Any tyro in the question knows that a tradosman is the servant of the public: if he gots moro than the value ot his service, he soon haß plenty of competitors, besides the certainty of the landlord raising his rent at the first opportunity. When his service ceases his wages ceaso also, but ground rent flows on for over without ronuornit; any service. . . It is strange how landlordism tries to screen itself first behind the threadbare skirl of the "poor widow," and now behind "supply and demand" the "tradesman a counter," and the " working man. lint a" this will not suffice to save it; it « a 11 "" exposed and condemned, awaiting eariy abolition. _ , „ ~ Regarding the " Mangoro Farmers disquisition I have only space to say that a neighbour of his has called on me to point out thai the building of the Mangcre Bridge out of public money had the effect of raisins the value of land about three or fourfold in that distriot; therefore a reasonable aeon to keep out of He. Majesty s hotel at Mount Eden should suggest the justice Ol returning to the public Treasury the annual ront of that additional value am, etc., Geo. Fowlds.