MR. UPTON AND SINGLE TAX.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11684, 20 June 1901, Page 6

MR. UPTON AND SINGLE TAX.

TO TUB EDITOR. air—Mr. Upton, in your issue of June 5, displays what may pass as " newspaper entroversial ethics," but falls away from fee higher .standard I expected of him by m:. stating what I have previously said. I deny that; I ever said it was right to Ml land or anything else, and then for the sellr to deprive" the buyer of its monetary vain. I have always contended it was wrong fir the State to" sell laud, but having done tie wrong it should get righted in the way tht would entail the least hardship on in!:victuals, viz., by a gradual abolition of ill taxes except a tax on land values. T,is could l>e done gradually without taking a single penny of present monetary value aiay from those who have bought land from ho Government. Mr. Upton has persistentlyisrnored my contention that all the value of he annual services performed by the Government are reflected or expressed in land values, .nd that the landowner can, and does, cobct the value of those services in the form of rent; that when the Government coliectslhe cost of the services from the rentpayers. »-ho have already paid for them to their 1- .ndloxls, the Government commits robbery.

Mi. Tjjjjon is shocked at the idea of "' felony," which he thinks is ii vol vet :n taxing the landown v for the services reisered to him by the State, but has no qmlraa of conscience over the "'felony" of tin fio\eminent collecting taxes from the for services which they have already pad for to the landlord.

I quite agree with Mr. Upton that it is vain to discus a proposition so absurd as that which he propounds, viz.. that traders, as well as landowners, participate in tin advantages of public services. A trader lias to pay his landlord in rent the value o! all those public services, and if be happens lo Ins both landlord and trader it i* in Ids capacity of landlord that he reaps the benefit, aau not as a trader. If he ceased to be a trader, he could still collect the value, of the services as a landlord. The trader and every other member of the community has to give value for value. The landlord is the only mas who is privileged to receive something fir nothing, and whose tribute-taking powers is increased by every increase of population and every improvement and service provide out of public funds. I have had several intimation., tlcl the present discussion has been profitable, and have to express my satisfaction that nothing of personal bitterness has been allowed to mar it. The subject is of fai greater importance than most people imagine, and the problem of involuntary poverty which hangs 011 it may yet be solved without the upheaval which some people anticipate. The British people generally solve their difficulties by compromise, and it. is possible that Mr. Upton's, suggestion ot buying out the present owners may be adopted before a final settlement is reached, but I coild not admit that such a course would be a fairer way than the gradual change in the incidence of taxation, which J advocate.—l am, etc., Geo. Forma.