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Vol. 11. No. 37.
A LESSON IN ECONOMICS.
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a DRAWN BY GORDON NYE.
WHERE GENUINE DEMOCRACY RULES
In 1887 New Zealand was an al
most unknown British colony in the
far southern seas.
With an area about twice that of
Georgia, or Illinois, it had a scant
population of about 700,000 people
composed entirely of English, Irish
and Scotch stock except about 40,000
Maoris, the native race. It was
cursed with land monopoly, coal mo
nopoly, shipping monopoly, money
monopoly. It had the largest per
capita debt in the world. Fortunate
ly this great debt had been mainly
created for productive works such as
railroads, telegraphs, etc. Roughly
speaking one-half the land was
choice, fertile soil, the remainder was
rough land heavily timbered and un
tillable mountains. -
The policy of the country had been
controlled by the exploiters and some
of the railroad lines had been unwise
ly built at the demand of large land
owners.
Atlanta, Ga., Thursday, OctoK 1907.
The railroads had been built by
Government because private capital
would not venture, and this proved
to be a good thing. In 1887 the out
look was gloomy. Sixteen hundred
persons owned eighteen million acres
of land, or over 11,000 acres per cap
ita. Eleven men owned land worth
twenty-four millions of dollars, one
hundred and seven men owned land
of the value of thirty-five millions
of dollars.
One, John Ballance, a philosophic
statesman, came into power on a re
form platform with a majority of
parliament at his back. By 1891
they were able to get at the land
monopolists. It was done by the old
and constitutional method of taxa
tion. Graduated income taxes, grad
uated inheritance taxes, graduated
land taxes —these were the weapons
used. The rate of taxation was mod
erate. Liberal exemptions were al
lowed, in incomes $1,500 was exempt.
In lands all improvements and mort
gages up to a certain amount were
deducted and after that a further de
duction of $2,500, but even with these
big exemptions and a low rate the
graduated tax got next to the big
land owners; the fellows who owned
30,000, 50,000, 100,000 acres found
themselves in a bad way. Then the
Government stepped in and bought
these big holdings and subdivided
them so that the people could get a
chance. The Government paid good
prices for these lands and when sub
divided would sell to no man as it
wanted no more land monopoly, but
in lieu of freeholds leased these lands
on easy terms for 999 years. Leases
were transferable after approval by
the government and improvements
were the property of the tenant, but
no fee in the land could be established
and future land monopoly was estop-jj
ped. Then the money ring was at I
tacked. Government borrowed money*
Price Five Cents.
at 3 1-2 and 4 per cent and lent
out again to the people at 5 per cent
on 36 1-2 years’ time. Under this
system a borrower of SSOO would pay
sls every 6 months for 30 years and
a final payment of s9* at the end of
36 1-2 years and his debt was dis
charged. He could anticipate pay
ments at any time in whole or in
part. It is almost needless to state
that they have state telegraphs, state
telephones, postal savings banks, a
parcels post, state insurance advances
to settlers, old age pensions and a
multitude of things our space will
not permit us to mention.
In 1893 Ballance died in the midst
of his labors, and was succeeded as
Premier by Richard Seddon, who had
been the Minister of Public Works,
and who had started life'as a miner.
John McKenzie, a Scotch farmer, be-
I came Minister of Public Works. Sed-
(Continued on Page Four.)