MAKE THE LANDLORD PAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14492, 5 October 1910, Page 8

MAKE THE LANDLORD PAY.

THE SINGLE TAX CAMPAIGN. The large audience which gathered at St. James's Hall last evening to listen to the first public address of Mr. Arthur Withy, the single tax missioner, who is just commencing a lecturing tour of the Dominion, was almost entirely composed of persons who .had already been converted to the views of the speaker. The meeting was consequently enthusiastic, and the lecturer was heartily applauded tiro© and again. Mr. ."Withy is not an orator, but he is a fluent speaker, and has a way of .emphasising his points which carries a good deal of conviction. He has evidently given much study to his subject, and can put. his side of the question of the taxation of land values before an audience in a very clear and intelligible way. • Mr. Withy's subject last evening was "The British Budget ar, ' .he Land Question.'' He dealt at consideraDlo length with the land taxes imposed by Mr. Lloyd-George's famous Budget, and hinged on them a strenuous ' appeal in support of the single tax, which, he said. "is no tax at all." There was a great awakening going on at the present lime throughout the British Isles, and in consequence a hard blow had been delivered at the political party which had been endeavouring to set back the clock and to return to economic darkness, in the way of protection. Mr. Joseph Chamberlain had attempted to re-introduce protection under the guise of Imperial preference. He had said, in effect, that the colonies would no longer be loyal unless their loyalty was bought—an insult to all colonists—and in order to help his friends the landlords had proposed to tax the food of the people. (Applause.) Tariff reform, however, had received a deadly blow at the last general election, and was now as dead as frozen mutton. (Applause, and a voice, "No; it is not Tariffs were bad things, and the only way they could reform them was to abolish them. The only economically sound system of taxation was that on land values, by which some part of the wealth which the people created' came back to the people. The landlords of Britain for centuries had robbed, cheated, and bamboozled the people. In Cobden's day the land tax produced a revenue of £2,000,000 a year. Before Mr. LloydGeorge's Budget altered matters it had dwindled to £700,000. By Mr. Lloyd(Jcorge's Budget a good start had been made towards the settlement of the great problem, and the struggle would go on until it had been properly settled. A Voice: "That will l>e by protection." Mr. Withy: Yes; the protection of the people from those who would rob them. (Applause and laughter.) Tho lecturer quoted numerous facts and figures to show that a monopoly of land had obtained in Britain for years, and concluded by warning New Zealanders that the same danger threatened them, although, of course, to nothing like the same extent. The system of landlordism had been hit hard by the taxes imposed in 1891 by John Ballanco, and the taxation on unimproved values had also be>;n a serious blow. New Zealand had made itself an example to the world, and he hoped that it would ever remain so. (Applausf*.)