be put an end to by some means These colonies ought to be made or our redundant population by better than "gold finds." We of people to spare-people with ds, people capable of turning the a garden if they only have the But they have now no chance. continue to have none so long as le land is in the control of bankrations, withered up banks, or gagees, who sit upon the soil and onds in order to find opportunity ne or other to obtain the return ecklessly adventured from motives nest, always grasping. This sort s to be put an end to, and speedily, to be revived and the colonies put eart for their long wrestle. The hould, if possible, be induced to ndamental constitutional law foro all future time, further alienahe soil in fee simple; not even ad farms" ought to be exempt to the State. The land not already illy paid for, should be exclusively property of the State, henceforth 78. Cleared in this manner, diits multitudinous and blighting aces, and thrown open to occupaterritory of the colonies might act the immigrant. It would then Dower of people here interested in perity to assist in peopling the now I estates. ught, under such an arrangement, inable in every part of each colony ny payment whatever to start with f certain fixed size-merely on the of occupation and cultivation. For three or four years, according to istances, the occupier should be o sit rent free, merely paying the axes levied in the colony. Then, ought his farm into profitable conent should become payable. How to be assessed would be a matter s to determine, but it ought to be a exorbitant, and yet one that inp to a certain point in proportion id becomes productive; never imtenants' capital or fixed improve t measured in an unoppressive way creased yield of the soil. Upon 1 the people ought to be taught > rely for the income of the State. abominations should be swept I the trade of every settlement made y free, not only with its neighbours, the whole world. Such taxes as gitimately be put upon spirits and ught to be in the form of inland or ties, not Customs. us not leave the subject with words or scorn alone. All colonists are all are not dishonest cheats. A of honesty, a determination to I redeem their countries, is to be every one of them; and already the hes which have taken place have e working portion of the Australian y to greater exertions. It should very possible encouragement from e of this country. Australian beef on Australian butter and cheese, We hate their debts and the way in which most of these debts have been incurred; we dislike and distrust their political leaders, and feel much disposed to despise those in this country who have tempted them to go astray; but we have no feeling except one of goodwill and sympathy for the Australasian people. In their economic and financial mistakes we are not without sin. The least we can do is to help them in every honest effort they make to retrieve the past. Historical Fact Revised. There came two women (Land Monopoly and Labour) unto the king (Single Tax), and stood before him, and the one woman (Labour) said, "O, my lord, I and this woman (Land Monopoly) dwell in one house (The Earth), and I was delivered of a child (Capital) with her in the house. And it came to pass the third day after that I was delivered that this woman (Land Monopoly) was delivered also; and we were together, there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house. And this woman's child (Protection) died in the night, because she overlaid it. And she (Land Monopoly) arose at midnight (Depression) and took my son (Capital) from beside me, while thine handmaid slept and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child (Protection) in my bosom. And when I (Labour) rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead; but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son (Capital) which I did bear. And the other woman (Land Monopoly) said, Nay, but the living (Capital) is my son, and the dead (Protection) is thy son."" And this (Land Monopoly) said, "No, but the dead (Protection) is thy son, and the living (Capital) is my son." Thus they spake before the king (Single Tax). Then said the king, The one (Land Monopoly) saith this is my son that liveth, and thy son is dead; and the other (Labour) saith, nay, but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living." And the king (Single Tax) said, "Bring me a sword." And they brought a sword before the king. And the king said, "Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other." Then spake the woman (Labour), whose the living child (Capital) was, unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, "O, my lord, give her (Land Monopoly) the living child, and in no wise slay it." But the other (Land Monopoly) said, "Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it." Then the king (Single Tax) answered and said, "Give her the living child (Capital), and in no wise slay it; she (Labour) is the mother thereof." And all Israel (The World) heard of the judgment which the king (Single Tax) had judged; and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment. The sentiment, "Free Trade among ourselves with Protection against the world," is very good, but it does not go far enough. The Beacon believes in Free Trade among all BY JUST Every part of the colo ant illustrations of the of our land policy. If had deliberately designed a basis for a social struc could hardly have sur iniquity the policy which the past. It is admirably vention of the proper soil, and where it fails gress of industry a ri protection lends itself purpose. Monopoly has us to a condition of b only the close observer which lock up our lands few, and impose restri every turn, must have th ing or strangling industr that trade should hav consequent on interrup the very source of our in felt the exhausting pres polies, and that we sho ignominiously on the I the maintenance of stay the clamour of th there is more to deplo effects of the policy of rest ing effect on public chara where manifested. All tinctly familiar in the Those who have two hu of cultivating them pr four hundred, those who labour to obtain eig those with a thousan two thousand. In ma succeeded, and consider are held by few men especially where the lan have come to grief, and acres of it is now in the A good deal of the land for grazing; but much able for smaller holdin think of settling on fifty even of the good land.. vention of the expansion become stationary, with inhabitants at the most. without a population a the land is all held i limited number of peop on his fields of severe farmer often has a stru of two hundred miles freight to and from Me he consumes or sends seriously diminishing are further minimised! tection. With wheat and moderate crops, th great. Notwithstandi vantages to a district o large areas, no one th reform in this directio have a future before must be kept intact. possible pastoralist, if and impediments to fur be kept away. In the pa ment has given ear to E such is the case, it is nfortunates on three or in the surrounding dist a living. In this dis. xperiment in irrigation, oved a pronounced fail. e. It is based on injuss and extravagance have he farmers of the dis to an acceptance of an glowing pictures of forornia and elsewhere by culture, and predictions he country was going to garden. About double ed and we are as far off hile there is a general whole thing is a comre are crowds of angry they should be com tead of orchards and body that has never and slightest benefit to them. to better results in other y than in this, there will for some one to pay off ment has by no means I affairs which has been it will be rudely eny long. bringing about the overthe Protectionists in the Cenry George's "Protec On Cleveland's defeat gle Taxers, realising the was education, issued a 00,000 of George's book. nd were subscribed for The sale was phenoReform League purone man sold personally efforts were soon after le Taxers in Congress ublication of over a milition advertised in our es were sent to each of rs in the country, and 3 in Washington worked to keep pace with the sands were also applied last year in New South was circulated. Could k into every farmers' ur sham-and-shoddy be soon swept aside, et into step with the Democracy of England, ed States. otection-made million. undertaken to donate 7 working day of the he relief of the starv: tsburg, U.S.A. As it tsburg working men ir have endowed Mr. ons, the latter's geneher fitness or irony. t, o the simple source be still more applice Ye are the salt of the earth, and if t ure-runner of Federation. In this the Pro- The first glimmerings of the and truth and practicability of C shine through the study of the Si Things altogether irreconcileable doctrine of love are, viewed in logical and understandable. The is the application of Christianity came into the world to teach me life and example-to apply the law. is of God; men cannot make, they administer it; and, first, they must it. Righteousness is the law; its tion is in the moral code laid Christ. The great teaching of Our Savio in the sight of God men are equ is, there are no class distinctions. it was whom Christ chose for 1 panions and disciples, and the who ing, the whole basis of Christiani upon the assumption that all men equal right to enter the kingdom of and shall not this law apply on "Thy kingdom come; Thy will be earth as it is in heaven," is the dail of thousands. For nineteen hundred years the of Christianity-the Church of Chr. striven to bring in the kingdom of G to prepare men for its reception; an day-in the most Christian country world-in the hearts of how man Christ reign? To how many has th dom come? How can it come? Go not by miracle, but by law. It is imp to reconcile right and wrong. The Prayer has become a mere form-s from which the kernel has been ext Humanity cries, "How can Thy k come while men-Christians and ot -refuse to acknowledge the law o freedom?" Can we wonder that men without to the social problem fail to see th would reconcile men to Himself them it seems that nature-the law of is responsible for the inequality, the and the hopelessness of thousands o tures made in His likeness, and they their despair, "There is no God-ther law! The only hope lies in anarchy. out law we cannot build, therefore destroy. Blind chance will at least sort of rough equality." Looking closely into the intricate maze slowly there dawns on our gaze, first, say an eye, then the tail, then a paw, and so on, until eventually the complete form of the cat is revealed. Once having seen the cat we can never get away from seeing it, and though the picture be put away, perhaps for a year, immediately on looking upon it again we "See the Cat." And when a man has once had a clear view of our doctrines, But what a flood of light flows in wherever he goes, in town or country, at the understanding is quickened. N home or abroad, on every hand he sees the need for putting into practice the Single Tax. He has "Seen the Cat." Men, not Protectionists, say, "Give us justice and not charity." The essence of Protection is "charity," while the essence of Free Trade is "justice." A man with any idea of the dignity of labour does not wish to be a State-protected "pauper." The Australian Portland Cement Co., of Geelong, made a contract to supply the Prahran council with cement for the year 1892 at 11s. per cask. During that year the duty on cement was increased. For the year 1893 the price weg 19. per cask Vot the A law of God, but the ignoring of that responsible for all the ills of poor su humanity. By one simple enactment establish that equality, that law of right which is the charm of Chris We can abolish the all-absorbing an the constant fear of poverty-which men from the cradle to the grave. world capable of more than satisfy wants of all, we can give to each an opportunity. We can remove the on drance, and pave the way for the co God's kingdom and the doing of His earth. Once freed from care as animal requirements, who shall say t sublime height of spirituality man m tion of Protection-"A tale told by full of sound and fury, signifying crease of child labour in Illinois, om 1880 to 1890, was nearly 90 per 'middleman" is he who stands the worker and his need for land, ands "rent." zling the ox that treadeth out the = the landlord's contribution to our al progress. Protection by Act of Parliament is bad enough, but protection by the ukase of the Railway Commissioners is a great deal worse. Yet, in this so-called democratic community, we have arrived at a point when mere jacksin-office can enrich some and impoverish The other citizens at their sweet will. nonentities who have been entrusted with the mismanagement of our railways have reduced the freight on Victorian coal to d. per mile, and propose to increase the freight on coal carried up country. Not only are the general taxpayers called upon to make up the loss argest Victorian distillery dismissed caused by carrying some coal below cost employés during the month of Janu- price, the owners of coalfields reaping the is but a short time since the Pro- advantage, but every other country industry to this industry was increased, and is now to be fined for their benefit as well. This is what Protection is leading us to. say, "Protection gives employment." Every principle of justice, every constitumerican paper,to obviate the necessity tional safeguard is set aside for the advannually printing notification to out-of-tage of some favoured individuals. Unless rinters to stay away from different the hoary humbug is abolished soon it will gravely notifies all printers out of make this colony the butt and laughing stock ment to " 'Keep away from every of all Australia. sopotamia was a blessed word to the old lady, and "International Cusnions," and "Extensions of the recippolicy" are blessed euphemisms to ated Protectionists, who, without using aightforward term " Free Trade," wish themselves down easily and escape the evils produced by their tradeing madness. pite the victory of the Conservatives in andtag election, the German Chancellor ot altered his determination on the ng of future commercial treaties. CapOntemplates an extension of the recip- policy until Germany shall be linked mercially with every civilised nation. Emperor is known to entertain broad looking toward an international oms union, and he supports the Chanin his approaches to this end. e American Federation of Labour, comng the greater part of the trades' unionof America, in its official call to the 13th al Convention, held at Chicago in -mber last, re-echoes the same wearisome that is told wherever "civilisation" is d:-"In calling this convention, your ntion is directed to the grave situation ch confronts the toiling masses of our try. In a land varied in climate, anding in wealth, all nature smiling upon with willing hands, we yet see hundreds housands of our fellow human beings ious to fashion and produce wealth, the essities and luxuries of life, yet unable to ■ an opportunity of being so employed." pearl from the pantomime-" Little Red ing Hood" :-(Two clowns appear on the ge, one carrying a young dog under his n). First Clown (pointing to dog)-" What's of the country, duties are a certainty; all for working classes, as repr holders. The paralysis of Pr beyond the industrial f with impotence the jo defenders. Even the unscrupulous, writes and gives Protection a to defend it. Witness of the 20th January, h tion has done." Ove print is there devote recital how the forced people who must wear the directors of the Ba get together machine make woollen goods, o holders have been paid besides paying off a banks. Five lines only are tage which the workin but unfortunately for contain the gist of the they say: "About 200 hands mills, and the wages £380." Fancy that! £38 hands means an ave This is what the woollen operatives Hallelujah" over states that the Balla Sir Graham Berry, at Camperdown, as- What the people of Victoria have to expect, should they allow the protective system to continue, was made pretty evident on the 26th inst. On that date a meeting of shareholders in the Metropolitan Gas Co. was held, and the directors of the Coal Creek mine at Korumburra entertained a distinOn both guished company at luncheon. occasions Protection was loudly demanded for the suffering shareholders in these monoMr. Isaac Hart voiced the aspirapolies. tions of the Gas Co. for a protective duty of 6d. per gallon on pauper-made kerosene, so as to compel the people to purchase more of the vile article which the Metropolitan Gas First Clown-" Why, I thought you called Co. deigns to offer at prohibitive prices. At Korumburra it was Mr. Dixon, M.L.A., who, m Protection ?" spccah loudly calling for federation, s name?" Second Clown-" Free Trade." The same wisdom sequent article, ex progress of the bount order to prove that t increase the price of it is not the cons manufacturer, who states:-"Indeed, w may be said that t felts are superior to tions, as, latterly, th been to induce Engl fur into their best merchant being ther and still compete in article." Wonderfu does not increase pr ferior article to be for which a better before. Truly, the tection policy are Free Trade cause. Moreover, it is a the "Age" to keep ments which sever it advocates. We instances of this occ and extract anoth Paris corresponden last. : Indeed, the nation gradually enclosing he Chinese walls. Her operable damage t BY SYDNEY JEPHCOTT. I wake, and see the world, adorable with spring, Rise from its starry sleep of night, where time Sleep-walks, entranced by moonlight's dreams divine, And rolls its irid heaven of dawn around The coming day, whose spears of keen-edged fire A trail of tenuous cloud takes fire of gold, The skiey seas of forest blue, As gracious as the moulded snow of breasts Irradiated now their contours float The gloss of yellowing sward that clothes each curve His body's kingdom; with his mind's empire Life's sun and death's mysterious moon, and, to Long, with far focussed eyes, I view my form; Earth's circumambient day that has no end, That tremble into darkness of the light unseen, Whipped from the land that yearns full-bosomed vast, And fond to feel its children's loving lips. Held in an endless net-work of fair roads, That crowns all drought with green, and hides with growth The generous farmsteads neighboured nigh, and cots Embowered of handicraftsmen free and proud, And gardened cities spreading evermore; The famished children round their feet, inheired dogs do, In timid trespass o'er the trackless length It cannot be! It cannot be! Like bride Of thousands, or ten thousands, ever or now It cannot be that grass and trees should toss To suck each earth-grain's sweet fertility; Aye! 'twould wait An owner's word to yean; delay its morn O, atomies, did God come forth and claim An Infant Industry. UNCLE SAM AND COLUMBIA CONVERSE. UNCLE SAM: "What's that you're nussin', Columby dear?" COLUMBIA: (with considerable acerbity)— "An infant industry, Uncle Sam. It strikes me your question is rather queer; He's your own grand nephew, pretty lamb." UNCLE SAM (apologetically). "Thet's so; but the fam'ly's large, you know, An' like an ill weed, grows apace. I was at his chris'nin' long ago; It seems like years since I saw his face. COLUMBIA (hesitatingly): "About seventy-five, But very delicate; something ails UNCLE SAM (interruptingly): "An not weaned yet? Why, he'll pull you dow Great Scott! Columby, you must be mad; You'll be the laughin'-stock of the town I guess he's a toler'ble well-grown lad. COLUMBIA (uncovering the infant): "There ain't he a beauty ?" UNCLE SAM : "Gosh, what a buster! Fat as a seal; But what in the nation ?-Why, look at his hair? he critter in many ways; rit an' goes all to fat; a hog an' a dern mean cuss; ight to the rest of your sons; they'll raise an awful mussten hear the roar of guns. y of yours behind the plow ears in debt, they say; or lad, where is he now? of the sea but yesterday. quite justice to all concerned ie pie to this bloated chap; bok hungry, an' I'm gol derned need some protection pap." (peevishly): 1 to wean him, the pretty dear, ›d seems to make him worseating a hemisphere, ild asked for the universe." W. E. P. FRENCH. ling, Minn., Jan. 1880. Correspondence. The Editor of the BEACON. uld you please accept the enclosed lines ner? They were thought out working at r, with the thermometer 108 degrees in -Yours, &c.-J.B. id Plains, January 11th, 1894. IER'S ADDRESS TO HIS FELLOW. SLAVES. AIR-"Scots wha hae." rethren all, who toil for bread, 7ho by taxes base are bled, o longer be by knaves misled- Choose the day, and choose the hour, Break from slavery! Who would be content to bear Who for country, truth, and light, Fly Protection's woes and pains, And worker's hungry cry! Let us all united stand, Sworn as brothers, hand in hand, J. B. To the Editor of the BEACON. -Last week I had occasion to take a trip into until recently) terra incognita—the Mallee y. At a roadside station about 150 miles Melbourne a stranger entered the compartof the railway carriage in which I ated. I had been reading a weekly paper, I handed to the stranger. He said, "I ve you something worth reading in exchange," oduced from his travelling bag a copy of the 1. I was very pleased, and told him I had been scriber since it started. The conversation pon turned upon the Single Tax, and I was ed to find that my companion had virtually e a convert, wholly through the instrumen. of your paper. rived at the terminus of the line, and next day with some friends about 25 miles right into art of the Mallee. We camped on the bank mall stream, the only habitation in sight being nhouse, about half a mile distant. One of our er offered to go to the farm for some milk, n his return told us that he had a most integ interview with the farmer's wife, whom he bed as a "fine, intellectual woman." her resting on the verandah earnestly reading Beacon. She entered into conversation with sitor, and said she had come to the conclusion the Beacon was the only paper which had the question of the day, and was a paper farmer should read. He Magna est veritas et prevalebit.-Yours sincerely, "WIR HEISSEN EUCH HOFFEN." Camberwell, December 11th, 1893. The Editor of the BEACON. SIR,-Can you give me space for a question upon the article entitled "Pauper Labour," appearing in your last issue? In it occurs the following passage, "Whether the workman gets one quarter of the profit and the capitalist and landowner together pocket three-quarters, or whether the workman gets three quarters and the others only one quarter between them, does not affect the cost of the boots." This is to prove that high wages do not mean dear goods, and under fair social conditions I can understand that it would be irrefutable. But is it not a fact that under those now existing the share of the landowners tends to rise, while that of the capitalist is fairly constant, so that an increase of wages would necessitate a greater profit, which could only be obtained, the efficiency of the work remaining the same, by selling the boots, or other article manufactured, at a higher price? I of course recognise the force of the contention that with higher wages the efficiency of the labour em ployed would gradually increase, but I wish to know if, unless the landowner can be despoiled of his lion's share of the profits, higher wages can be obtained in the first instance except by raising the price of the article for the making of which the wages are paid?-Yours, &c., Nov. 23rd, 1893. Boots. [No. If the landowners' share and the capitalist's shares remain the same, the workman's share cannot increase. If you cut an apple into three parts, the dimensions of two of which are stated, you can. not by any exercise of ingenuity increase the size of the third part. But the landowners' share can be reduced by legislative measures, and in such a manner that it increases the share of the workers. The Single Tax will do it.-ED.] To the Editor of the BEACON. SIR,-I notice how often the letters appearing in your columns take the form of a bombardment of questions often asked from a hostile, or semi-hostile, point of view, and that, though this is so, you yet courteously address yourself to the task of answering these questions with candour. Keeping this latter fact before me, I am emboldened to add another to the already long list of questions. Your contention is that the increase in the value of any piece of land which is due, not to the labour or merit of the occupier of that land, but to the progress and development of the whole country, or part of the country, should accrue to the public, who really create it, and not to the individual who happens to own that patch of soil. The means by which you would effect this piece of justice is the gradual imposition of a tax on this unimproved value. Now, my question is this: Suppose an owner of land had a tenant paying him £100 per annum rent for a piece of unimproved land. The whole of that rent really is due to the nation, and the progressive tax first imposed to obtain part of it is say £10. What is to prevent the owner raising his rent to £110 and forcing the tenant to pay both tax and rent? The tenant cannot go to other lands and so escape the increased rent; for if these lands are rent-paying, they will be taxed in the same ratio as the land he is leaving, and consequently if, as is most likely, other owners also increase their rent by the amount of the tax, the tenant will have no loophole for escape. Thus the only effect of the first instalment of your progressive tax will be to raise the price of goods and produce. You may compensate this by taking off Custom dues to the amount of your land tax, but this will only amount to a shifting of the burden. Even here there might of course be some slight benefit, since the land tax may be more economically collected than the Customs dues; but this is not the effect you intend, and you would still leave the rent untouched. You will say, perhaps, that since the rent has been increased to £110, the tax next year will be assessed on this, and consequently the rent will be in the second year (if the owner is to escape paying any tax at all) £111. And so no doubt it will; but here the matter will end, since future increases in rent, due to increase of tax, will be so small as to be easily worked off on the tenant. I fail, therefore, to see how you will attain your object, unless before the imposition of the tax it is fully and firmly determined that no future increase of rents will be allowed.-I remain, &c, Dec. 5th, 1893. AUSTRALIENSIS. The reason why the owner cannot force the both happens, the price i tent of the tax. A tax on land has the contrary e supply of land by forcing d fully used, land to look o chasers. Hence, instead land must fall. In ad lit owners will have to acce competition of owners wit will be increased. If owners of land would we would all be paupers. that case, prevent the fal witnessed during the last the tenant has something t all a question of competiti of tax will be so small as t Our correspondent's view the tenant," is, however, th the tax is 100 per cent; a rent of £100 is then taxed de mands £200, though he benefit him one penny, be to £200 as well, &c., &c. Н dent has given little thou political economists, from wards, agree in the sta ground rent or the unimpr not be shifted by the own reason above stated.-ED.] FREETI To the Editor of And SIR, Although admittin Free Trade and like inju still a Protectionist. me in your corresponden wrong in the views I hold Single Taxer that land is munity and that individua it than possession in use. equal and free inheritance production that it should should be free, and also th tion. All this I hold sho not; land is not free, pro interchange or trade must tion imposed on its sour latter is a corollary of the 1 but, more than this, the li and production are control use of land and the exer countries to such an exte countries, restrict trade them from free opportunit free market to the detrime If con our own resources. in land and labour I can should be natural and free are not equally free, ar resorted to to adjust the stances. In this respect, while I f Tax method, and will al realisation, I think the ta Taxers, under the guidan wise. The Free Trader w only desires to benefit his would take as much out of revenue duties and other f other hand, the Protectio believes that his method inequality of fundamental My opinion, therefore, years' experience, is tha should attack only the lan benefits are seen by appr ing taxation, other than 1 the Free Traders would realise the truth that when free, and trade may also l labour.-Yours, &c. [Our correspondent is q that the absence of freedo lary of the absence of fre so in the sense in which always a corollary of the rally. Just as despotist once freedom of speech sence of free production dom to exchange is obtair Our friend is of opinio land gives an advantage i at the same time that ne is more free than in older vantage in production as |