WEALTH NOT MONEY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18758, 11 January 1923, Page 8

WEALTH NOT MONEY

CREDIT THE REAL BASIS. CAPITAL LEVY DELUSION. WOULD DESTROY ITS OBJECT. The British Labour Party’s favourite project of confiscating wealth, by a capital levy or otherwise, is based on a delusion, or as I should prefer to cull it, an economic superstition (writes Sir Sidney Low in the Sunday Pictorial). They think that wealth is money, and that it can be divided up by taking it away from ‘‘the rich” (including everybody who is worth £5000) and spreading -it among the wageearners. A millionaire is conceived as a person who has one million pounds sterling. Divide that million into one thousand equal portions, and there will be a thousand pounds apiece for a. thousand deserving members of the working classes I A rather fascinating dream, even it slightly immoral! The weak point—its immorality apart—is ■that it is only a dream. It is born of fictions and falsehoods, and has no relation to reality. The gold is fairy gold, which will turn- into dead leaves and ashes when you try to touch it. The moment you enter upon u wholesale confiscation of "wealth” it will melt away until it is not worth taking. A LEVY ON A MILLIONAIRE. Let us work it out in a typical case. Mr Z. t who has made a fortune in finance or industry, is a millionaire. Let us suppose that a Communist government or a Soviet re-

public decides to expropriate Z’a million for thfc State or the "workers.” How “much of that sum would they be able to realise? Not more than a fraction. Z lives in Park Lane, and his house figures in his schedule of assets for, say, £BO,OOO. It is worth that sum because there are other rich men who would also like to live in Park Lane, and are ready to pay heavily for the privilege. When the red commissaries have seized these mansions and converted them into workmen’s dwellings or municipal lodg-ing-houses, they would bo worth no more than similar blocks in a by-street. Eighty thousand of Z's fortune would be scaled down to us many hundreds at a stroke. Inside this fine house the confiscatory commission would find some valuable objects, such as .pictures, handsome furniture, and Mrs Z's pearls and diamonds and Paris frocks. These, of course, would fetch some money if sold. Nobody could afford to buy them in Great Britain. So they would have to be sent abroad, to America or some other country where some rich ’people still remained. They ■ would have to be durafted upon a glutted market, with heavy charges for transport, commission and agency. Under such conditions only the jewellery and precious stones—as the Russian Soviet has found—would be worth selling. NO "MONEY” TO BE FOUND.

So far we have not got much out of Mr Z’s million. The Commissaries would not be satisfied with necklaces and unsaleable objects of art. “It's your money we want,’’ they might murmur. They would look tor Z’s- money, and they would not find it. The bulk of Z’s property is not in cash or in jewels, plate, furniture and pictures. Most of it is in paper; that is to say, in stocks, bonds, share certificates, receipts for bank deposits or inscribed Government loans, and the like. These things are not money, nor, in themselves, are they wealth. They are simply credit notes. They are valuable just eo Tong as the individuals or corporations issuing them are able, or deemed likely,, to fulfil their contracts.

Mr Z, perhaps, may hold £IOO,OOO of Government 6 per cent. War Loan. What he really holds is a piece of paper on which the British Treasury has printed a pledge, on behalf of the British nation, to give him £SOOO every year till the loan is redeemed. It is, in fact, a promise to pay, and its entire- value depends on the general belief that tho'British Government can and, will keep its promises. Destroy the Government’s credit, as it would be destroyed if the confiscation policy were adopted, and the promissory note would be about as valuable as Bussian bonds, or even Bussian roubles. So it would be with all other securities, Z has

certificates representing his investments in railway companies or industrial concerns. Here, again, all he'has really got is a promise on the part of the firm or company to pay him either a fixed rate of interest or a share of their annual profits. CREDIT THE BASIS OF WEALTH. The market value of the certificate is due partly to the general opinion as to the honesty and capacity of the borrowers, partly to the political and social stability of the country in which they carry on their business. Credit again; and only credit! Upset that, and nothing remains. What are the holders of Russian railway and industrial stocks receiving to-day? Without going so far as a Red Revolution or a Terror, it would be quite sufficient to enact legislation which would render it uncertain whether any company, however prosperous and well managed, could have any profits to divide among its shareholders. In that case its scrip—its promises to pay — would become worthless; nobody would want to pay anything for them. So the commission might take all Z’s stocks and bonds and certificates, only to discover that they had converted them into rubbish. They will have become scraps of paper indeed, and might as well be used for pipe-lights. The basis of all wealth, in an industrial community, is a profound trust in national and social security and good faith, a confident assumption that the State will stand by its own obligations and enable individuals and associations to execute theirs. It is an intangible, impalpable thing, apt to vanish into air when rough hands are laid upon it. A law to confiscate property might certainly be passed; but by the time it came to be executed there would scarcely be enough real wealth left to pay the expenses of the process. TREASURES OF THE TOMB RELICS OF OLD EGYPT. STORY OF LUXOR DISCOVERIES. The Cairo correspondent of the London Times, in n despatch to his paper, gives interesting details of how Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter unearthed below the tomb of Ramoses VI, near Luxor, two rooms containing the funeral paraphernalia of King Tut-anwi-ainen, who reigned about 1350 B.C. He says: “A sealed outer door was carefully opened, then a way w;is cleared down some 16 steps and along a passage of about 25ft. A door to the' chambers was found to be sealed as the outer door had been, and, as on the

outer door, there were traces of reclosing. “With difficulty entrance was gained, and when at last the excavators managed to squeeze their way in an extraordinary sight met their eyes, one that they could scarcely credit. “First they 'saw three magnificent statues, all gilt, with exquisite carving and the heads of a typhon, panther and lion. On these rested beds, beautifully carved, gilt and inlaid with ivory and semi-precious stones and also innumerable boxes of exquisite workmanship. FIND RARE SPECIMENS. “One of these boxes was inlaid with ebonv and ivory with gill inscriptions; another contained emblems of the undcr-world. On a third, which contained royal robes handsomely embroidered with precious stones and golden sandals, were beautifully-painted hunting scenes. There was a stool of ebonyinlaid with ivory, with most delicately-carved ducks’- feet, also a child’s stool of fine work-, manship. “Beneath one of the couches was the state throne of King Tut-anth-amen, probably one of the most beautiful objects of art ever discovered. There was also a heavily gilt chair, with portraits of the king and queen, the whole encrusted with turquoise, cornelian lapis and other semi-precious stones. “Two life-sized statues of the king, with goldwprk holding a golden stick and mace, faced each' other. They had handsome features, and feet and hands were delicately carved with eyes of glass and a head-dress richly studded with gems. There were also four chariots, the sides of which were encrusted with semi-precious stones and rich gold decorations. A charioteer’s apron of leopard’s skin hung over the scat. “Other noteworthy objects were royal sticks, one of ebony with the head of an Asiatic as a handle in gold. Another was of handsome filigree work. There was also a stool for a throne with Asiatics carved on it, denoting that tho king had placed his foot! on the necks of Asiatic prisoners taken in war. MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. “There were some quaint bronze-gilt musical instruments and a robing dummy for royal wigs and robes. There were also some exquisite alabaster vases with a very intricate and unknown design, all of one piece, and some handsome blue Egyptian faience, and enormous quantities of provisions, comprising duck and haunches of venison nil packed in boxes as was the custom of the time. “There were some remarkable ■wreaths still looking like evergreen, and one of the boxes contained rolls of parchment which are expected to render a mass of information. “A further chamber revealed an indescribable state of confusion. Here furniture, gold beds, exquisite boxes % and alabaster vases similar to those mentioned in the first chamber were piled high one on top of tho other so closely that it has been impossible, to get inside yet. ' “Numbers of these treasures were m a fairly good state of preservation, but others are in a somewhat precarious _ condition. The greatest care is being taken in handline them, however, and there is every hope that under Mr Carter’s direction most of them will be preserved. _ , . “From the manner in which its contents were disposed it is evident that this cache has not remained untouched since it was buried. There seems no doubt that the wonderful collection of objects formed part of the funeral paraphernalia of King iut-anth-amen, whose eartouch is seen everywhere in both its forms. It appears that they were moved from the tombs where they were originally placed, and in order to preserve them from thieves were transferred for safety to these chambers. “Tho sealing and blocking of the doors and passages which so far have been opened suggest that metal robbers had attacked these chambers, and that inspectors of Kamesea IX had reason to enter and rcclose them. It is known that these royal tombs suffered at the hands of robbers, but whatever the chambers may have contained originally their contents to-day are sufficient cause for a sensation in the Egyptological world. CHANCE OF FAITH,

“The discovery will clear up many obscure points in regard to the eighteenth dynastamong others that not only was Smenkhara co-regent with Akhenolen, but it appears that lie must have died or ceded the throne simultaneously with him. Sepulchral objects of Smenkhara found here bear protocols of both monarchs. Tut-anth-amen’s reign, which was about 1358 8.C.. marks the transition from the Aten faith' back to the worshinners of Amen. The scones ami inscriptions upon his funeral furniture depict the king under both religions, first with the Aten faith when ho was named Tut-anlh-amen, or living image of Aten or the sun’s disc; and secondly under Amen worship, when he calls himself Tutank Hamen, or the living image of Amen. “What adds interest to this discovery is that there is still a third sealed chamber, which significantly the two figures of the king are' guarding and which may possibly turn out to bo the actual tomb of King Tut-anth-amon with a number of heretics who were buried with him.”

Danish eggs are numbered by a special system whereby each can be traced to the farm from which it originated.