GETTING BACK THE LAND FOR THE PEOPLE.

NZ Truth, Issue 59, 4 August 1906, Page 8

GETTING BACK THE LAND FOR THE PEOPLE.

;-.,. ■ » — ■ * A BISHOP ASKED TO- HELP*

Will He?

Tlie following letter was written to j the Bishop of Wellington as far back | as last November. At last advices it had unfortunately "got mislaid." "Truth" has been asked to publish it both m the interests of the people ■and to show what a truly paternal interest the clergy take m the welfare of their "children," the f fiends and companions of Jesus ! ,To the Right Revd. the Bishop of Wellington and the Clergy of all denominations m this country. ■ Right Revd. Sir and Rev. Gentlemen. The "divine" Plato has said that it is the duty of a citizen to endeavor, by all the means in 'his power, to cemedy those evils which he' perceives m the State. Such an authority will weigh with you as an apology for the liberty 1 am taking m thus address- " -wig., you upon what has been an object of study ■*• MuL^jeflectibn to me for many yearSMshe. ?Vroblem of human inequality, the alleviation of the lot and the improvement o| the condition of the pucr.^ And by the poor I mean not exclusively those sunk m abject poverty, but the whole of that mass of humanity who, born without the endowments of pecuniary means or great talents, have to maintain a» gifeJong struggle against the fearful (handicap imposed by the present conMitions of society upon those who dc)end for their existence solely upon their labor. How hard that strufffrle is, how severe that handicap, I need not impress upon you. I have. seen it. I have experienced.it. You all must have,, seen it ; I know that some among you have tasted of its bitterness, v Now, the means which have been tried, or suggested, for the solution of the problem under attention are many and various. There are Trades Unions, Labor legislation of all kinds, protections and: what not. We have organised charitable^ institutions and • the encouragement of private benevolence. In England. I believe, a bisli-~"'"~-op sfuggests "the simple life." And there is birmetalism. . And yet not one of these does more than provide . temporary relief. Not one of them touches the root of the matter. All are but attempts to' vary the plane of the pendulum without- shifting the centre of gravity. Not -one of them will accomplish its- -object . ! Where then can we look for per-, manence ? I think only by,? reverting to first principles. And as I have* slowly and gradually becqmevconvinced of what I now desire to ,to you that as the Earth is', the. mother of us all, it is from that point we must commence— that; ;iii . fact, the land question albne contains the secret springs of prosperity, or poverty. . , ' There are two lines upon.which.the land question can be ; discussed, the I f . economic and the ethic. I do not .-■V- Propose herein to approach »;it froni Oj^tltQ economic But to you I appeal -*f only upon the high ground ' of "justice and morality.' And. l do so because•b&u, of all men, are they to whom/ the. considerations of inherent tightness cr wrongness are paramount,, ; and the conclusions derived there-' --- from final. You are concerned with*, principles, not with results. To you*: there is but one essential question, viz., "Is this thing' Ripht or Wrong?'"* Even I who subsorisbe to no religious* . formula have a faith, grounded imf philosophy that that which is Right* can safely be txrusted to the operation.^ vl the immutetble laws of the uai-; verse. How nvochvgreater will your* faith be ! Now, while wfth respect to opin-< ions on many things it, is difficult tot decide whether they be right or wrong? there are 'others where the lines of ; . demarcation, are so clearly defined^ ;hat the Right is sufficiently obvious* «o neetf no demonstration, but mapi- , _iests/ itself sponi?a,rieously to the in- ' r'Uiiinw sense of justice present m any' , ordnnarily cultivated intelligence. And I submit that to ; this class*belongs the proposition that this gl»be y i, _ this Earth, m- common with the whole* % '■''■ universe, of wJaich it farms an. in- ( tegral part, fcelongs alone to itsv .Creator— that, the , Earth is the V Lord's— and that, therefore, no one* ' mortal can justly possess or claim any right of ownership over any the least considerable portion of it superior to or exclusive of any other mortal ; but tbat . each succeeding \ generation of mrj/nkmd occupies the -. world upon a life-tenancy participated m equally by} every individual. In the scheme»«-of the universe man' requires three "essentials to existence —earth, air raid water. Nay, physically he is of these elements. They,, are, under the > Divine will, his par-' ents. Therefore to every human be--into., the world belongs, by' virtue ,of the 'fact of his existence, ant equal citizenship or -fraternal right .. m these three elements : which none' .^_can restrict, or deprive- him of without violating a fundamental law of the universe, and therefore without ' ofience J oo its Creator. Yet the majority have been so deprived, and today suffer the deprivation. At this moment, m this age of reason, the ownership of. the very globe is vested m the minority, and the revenues of the common inheritance are monopolised by particular members of the family. If. that be just, and m accordance with divine law, then a mm"- -" oritv of the human race are alone to be regarded as the legitimate sons cf God, heirs and 00-proprietors of the universe ; while the majority tread the Earth by favor, as aliens awl children of the bondswoman, having' neither part nor lot m the inheritance ; of the human family. They are then ,' justl/y spoken of contemptuously by ' tbo/c others as having "no stake m th<y country" ; inferring by the lavrs of the lesser and the greater, what th(!^ lack either the perspicacity to tefogniKe or the assurance to put info words, tliaf- these last have no / "stake"— no interest, no title— in / G-ori's universe ! Can 6ne wonder that society is disfigured by- poverty and vice v/h3n it has gone so far, sr> fearfully far. astray. I ncftd not. tKM'nf- out- tn you, men of education superior to nwi' own. h n y

I this has come about. I need not call I to your mind the historic records of barbarous slaughter, of rapine, of cruelty, of -oppression, or fraud, by which the perversion of man's birthright has been accomplished. But I. do remind you that these . form the. foundation, distant and deep-hidden as it may be, upon which the superstructure of our land system as it exists to-day is reared. Man, collectively, has a right oE property or ownership m his own productions. He cannot go beyond' that. And m his production he is limited by the condition that he is a transformer, and not a maker. His power over /the universe is strictly limited to transformation. The raw material is. -supplied gratis by the Creator. And, as if to remind man of the limitation of Uiis power of disposal, .'■ m such, marvellous' manner that it is indestructible, a: heritage, an heirloom yv to njan> for all time, which 'he can neither add to nor destroy. Man. individually, has a right of property m that nart of man's production/ which he has acquired by his own labor of hand or brain, provide* that such acquisition is not detrimental 'to any of; his fellows. The exclusive acriuisit-'' ion or ownership of land by the individual is then immoral upon two grounds. Firstly, because the land is not man's production at all,' and secondly because such exclusive ownershin. , unless it were exactly equal, which is m practice impossible, is detrimental , to 'some of his fellows, inasmuch as it deprives them of their rightful benefit m that which is bestowed indifferently upon all— the raw material of the universe. - j Again, you rightly teach that all men are equal, m the sight of God. That the^ distance between the Crea¥ tor and the creature is so inconceiy--ably great that the variations between man and man are- r -lost m the transcendant space, as tfie protuber-' ance of the Himalayas sinks into the spherical contour of the globe. How Mien call the Creator invest some, of these puny/mortals \aith a title superior to others m the stupendous aecomiplistonfflKS of , creation ? To mi^ if the uhivipse; is' expressed' m the' tiny dewdrdp glistening m the morning sunshine, -stilly more articulately is it expressed in-the plot of land which I liye upon and cultivate-. Shall I then, the, creature of a moment, in v the expanse of eternity djfi T ering, irii perceptibly fronV the butterfly fluttering round me. '-shall I ha^R the temerity to barter with tfre universe^ itself, or to claim a rie^t to exclude my fellows from an. eqtfal share im its endowments ? or shall any other have the presumption to claim. a .title to exclude me? Custoni alone has blinded us to the enormity of the offence we arc committing against the eternal Lawgiver. Custom— which by imperceptible degrees solidifies into an opaque mass and obscures 'the truth. But voii will be the first to agree that custom can never modify the essences of right j and wrong. / , It is an accepted, if imperfectly appreciated, truth that man cannot diverge from nor traverse natural laws, physical or moral, without inciirring consequences deleterious to himself. Just as swift disaster attends him who builds a column contrary to the law of gravitation, so retribution, more sloyj but naually inevitable, pursues the society whose customs or policy are contrary to moral law. As, then, the foundation upon which the; perverted ownership of land rests was clearly the violation of the n 6st obvious moral laws (then unrecognised) and as the continuance of tUe: resultant, system";' 1 excluding as it-ifroes tfie i major .portion ofminkind ironi;- thaiK-Ho^Whichjjt is inherently, entitled, is 1 a perpetual violation of x#i a t appears, to nic at least, an equally obvious .law (now generally unrecognised) are we not justified m suspecting that this is the source of the glaring inequalities m the condition of men, the spring of the .shameful poverty and wretchedness which disgraces humanity, andof. the vice and ■ crime which are the outcome of poverty and ignorance? Iv 'cannot be necessary that such hardship and unhappmess, such heartbreaking and soul-destroying . struggles for bread should exist m a world so plentifully supplied with the means of maintenance for all its offspring. It cannot be the divine will that one man should be sated with luxury while another dies of starvation m the icy clutches of winter under a railway arch m the richest city m the world. To you, from the religious standpoint,; such an idea can be little short of impious. To me, from the philosophic, it is ridiculous. The fault lies-wi/h man^s lack, of wisdom. Therfr nriist be ' some* frightful opposition .between ■) humane institutions and the divine jutisprud^: ence, which it must b6' -in man's power to discover and rectify. Not by makeshift charity, more or less spasmodic, but by some organic change m society which will modify its constitution sufficiently to reach even the extreme cases.' Yet when the remedies which have been applied are traced to their logical conclusions every one of them is found to end j m futility, and to be operating m a ' circle. Not until we dig down to the very foundation of existence to the land, the earth itself— do we find signs of finality. But here at last we discover a factor potent enough to shift the social centre of gravity. At this point, and thisialone, we can erect an hynothosis which will bear the test of logical examination sufficiently to justify the belief that at length we have found something coincident with a natural law. But whether or not all the inequalities and hardships of society can be logically accounted for upon that hypothesis, and the complexities of modern social existence are such that no human intelligence is capable of tracing any given social proposition through all its ramifications, and accurately, guaging all its subsidiary influences,- .still • the broad fact remains ..unmoved and unshaken, that , tl! v vi£ii2sMioa Jierein expressed ap-

peals spontaneously to the innate sense of truth and justice. This, m the limitation of, human foresight, must be held to be a' sufficient justification for its adoption. If, m the advocacy of 'reforms, we hesitated to act until we could demonstrate their beneficent efficacy to the extreme limits of their effluence, we should still be naked savages eating acorns. Therefore I appeal to you, the accredited guardians of morality, , for your interest and aid. I appeal to •you to use your influence m, furthering and your voices m enunciating a principle ; of eternal justice— the. equal rights of men m their paternal inheritance—wiWi a view to its ultimate redemption-, and restoration. The .m aimer of such restitution,' I. suggest, is not for you. but for the political leaders to cope with. But, since wide misapprehension seems to exist, this much I desire to make perfectly clear- The restitution of man's common property m the land involves no "taking away" from anyone. It involves neither confiscation nor sudden anil violent changes. None who have thought deeply over the question dream of such things. It may be that the thoughtless utterances of the imperfectly educated have given rise l-o erroneous, ideas ; but if a pause may be justly condemned and dismissed with contempt because same of its , exponents are ignorant of its principles, where, may I ask, w.ould the. gospel itself be? $c, who M.ay: even : the humblest claim to the title ,of .philosopher, are content with the slow, gradual metamorphoses of nature. But while we are satisfied to. leave the growth of the tree to those forces, we know that the initial acts of planting the seed and keeping down the weeds rest with ourselves. .-= In this country, then, not yet old enough to have inherited the curse of its motherland— where we read, a million paupers stand to-day the mute, the pitiful, the awful witnesses of a nations ignorant wroiif-doing— m this young country, a move, "m the right direction has been made. It is now iii danger of being retarded by some unwise people, whom the natural instincts of selfishness blinds to the magnitude of the issues involved, and of whom, therefore, the severest condemnation we can permit ourselves, whether as philosophers or Christians, is ; ."thev know not .what they doi" Ther'6 : is, therefore, pressing need tii'at thisj'jland question should be lifted above:. the political arena to that height w^encs, viewed m per-r spective, its constituent features will assume their just proportions, and the hold and simple contours of Right and Wrong stand o,ut in.sharp relief m the pellucid atmosphere of pure justice. To do this is, I respectfully suggest, at once your privilege and your opportunity. Will you not the.ii,, a,t this critical moment, upon a matter whici^' so vitally affects the w,pll-be-ing (^humanity, which is anterior to prohibition, .'ay. to the Bible-in-Scho-bls, will.' y,ou not rise to the oceasj'o.'n, aridity proclaimiiipr to the wor||[ x^hat'^^'phrase "the Earth is the^qid' ; s'?fis^iiot a formula, but the ex]Mskioni4j|||k profound practicable trUW; cap¥sie ' of and demanding literal;r> application m man's' dealing with the Earth „m detail as "land," fearlessly demonstrate ijnat you arc indeed upon the side of ohe poor, the > struggling, the ignorant, and t-Lc, helplessy. ; I am, Rev. Gentlemen, . '■' Yours obediently. A. H. TRUEBRIDGE. Taita, Wellington, ■■ ' November 20, 05. ... "