Mr Bryee's Political Association.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XVII, Issue 5209, 16 February 1892, Page 1

Mr Bryee's Political Association.

A farmer, writing l<> tin; Feilding Slur with reference to (lie establishment of Mr Hryee's 1 *<<litic;i] Association, gives liis reason for declining to become n member. He says "The <1 mil vote, intended as a large i>i'il)o to those who have 'a stake in the colony ' for joining tin: Association, is in my opinion utterly wrong. and hased on a mistaken idea of t he right s of a class. On this claimed ground of right, all interested in the liquor trallic, if not, all who drink intoxicants, sin uld claim, in order to conserve their interests, (wo votes against: teetotallers, and one at. local licensing elections; and a <.oveniiuent who granted it, in one case could not, consistently refuse it in the other. "A stake, as 1 understand it, is a gambling term, and if one plays for u stake it follows that, his opponent, has a stake to lose. In this ease, it, is the landless laborer 1 am asked to play against, my stake being my farm -his, his axe, spade, or pick. If I win (and how mean, not to say un just, of me to demand two chances of winning to his one) 1 leave him less able to have, or work", his useful tool. If he wins and the result, is similar to last, elections, 1 lose nothing. His winning increases the. value of my farm by diminishing my taxation : and, by t he way, it is nonsense at, present to talk of the single tax overtaxing landowners; if it.did it would mean repudiation of all our liabilities to money-lenders, which might be no small gain to us. lint I opine that no one will gain a true notion of fair play between man anil master till he drops the gambling ligure and selects a more moral or Christian ideal. Indeed, if there is a danger of landowners obtaining a. dual vote, 1 beg to suggest, that, captains of labor buy blocks of land in all districts and give, or sell, acre allot incuts to all landless electors, and count, on my few sovereigns of help for the purpose of lighting ' Diabolians ' with their own weapons. We fanners would be docking our landless sons of their political manhood in giving a dual vote to landowners. "The charge brought against, t,he <!o----vernniont, of unjust taxation is exceedingly flimsy—l might say dishonest coining from some quarters -it. being an attempt on the part of the (iovernmenl, to equalise taxation on various incomes. "The fact that more land is taken up on the perpetual lease than on any other system speaks for itsell ; people see that money in hand is of more value to them than if buried ill land. Such being the ease now, it will probably continue to be so; and the lordly imagination of laud being one's own soon dies in anyone who [lays rates, taxes, and mortgagee's dues on it."