EXORBITANT RENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13480, 3 July 1907, Page 4

EXORBITANT RENTS.

j Sir, labour loaders ami their followers litre at. present very loud in (heir deiiuneiai lion ol' the unfeeling rapacity of " Hour jt.nists" and also short-weight practices of I bakers and butler companies, advocating I •State interference to protect the public | from ''''' avarice of unscrupulous commerce. | Why do they, however, ignore a far greater evil, one that presses far more acutely on the. helpless workergrinding him to poverty day by day. J mean exorbitant rents. If it is right for the State to protect, us from financial combines, when the market is sensitive,' certainly, the more staid matter of rent can be easily adjusted to stop this present rapacious plundering ol the poor. A\ by the labour leaders are silent 011 this important reform is because some of thorn are advantageously interestI C"d— U'icir own tenements, and also I draw rents from other property, thus joining panels at once with what tbev term the "bloated capitalist" in order *to exploit (heir weaker brethren. Did this reform not affect their own pockets we should have heard a great deal about this systematic overcharge of rent, for where the flour merchants filch 6d per week from a family, the landlord, at least, exacts four or five shillings more than what is equitable. \\ hen will the victimised workers I open their eyes to facts? This should be | the first, reform on their platform. A Victim.