People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1895 — IN NEW ZEALAND. [ARTICLE]

IN NEW ZEALAND.

government ownership enriching THE PEOPLE. A Sensible Talk from a Man Wh° Knows Railroads anil Telegraphs Held All the Taxes for Improvements. Macaulay’s New .Zealander is stoppir at the Grand hotel in this city. He .s a member of the New Zealand parliament from Wanganui, named A. D. Willis, who has been making a trip around the world. He told yesterday how the woman’s suffrage, the government ownership of railroads and telegraph lines, government insurance, government banking, co-operation in public works, the doing away of large land holdings, Henry George’s singletax theory, and other things only dreamt of in the rest of the world are known in the practical every-day life of that southern land. All these things, he says, have been brought about by their legislature and are far beyond the experimental state. Speaking last night at the Grand, Mr. Willis said: “The mass of the people is the first consideration with us altogether, and everything is being done for them, from the government ownership of railroads down to loaning money on land. I have been for some months traveling in different countries in Europe and the United States, and find that everywhere a great deal of interest is taken in our government on account of the many new departures we have made and the desire to know how our new experiments, as they regard them, are coming on. But we have got far beyond the experimental stage. I have received the greatest kindness from 'Americans everywhere, and I am leaving the country with a very feeling toward the people, but with a decided dislike for their system of government, by which wealth is represented and not the people. “With us, all that our government is for is the mass of the people. We are very radical. There is no conservatism about us at all. I suppose you want to know something about woman’s franchise and how that is working. The last parliament was the first to be returned under the new system. The women are coming to the front at a rate that astonishes us. The most astounding thing about it all is that, while the conservative party took the greatest interest in giving the franchise to women, in the hope that it would help their dying cause, the women have come out strongly against them, and. over two - thirds of the members of the house of representatives were returned by the liberals. The liberals never had so large a majority before the women were given the franchise. Even the women who were careless about getting the franchise are making full use of it.. As you Americans say, it has come to stay. Generally speaking, nearly as many women voted as men. They formed their own committees and worked very hard and very systematically and are making a careful study of all political questions.”

Evidently, according to Mr. Willis, there is no question about the advantage of government ownership of railroads. He said: I have been astonished to see how blind the people of America are to their own interests in allowing railroads and telegraph lines to be taker: up by monopolies. In our country we look upon railroads much as we do on wagon roads, and think it would be just as bad to hand the turnpikes over to monopolies to erect toll gates every few miles and collect tolls as to hand them over those greater highways—railroads. Railways, we believe, should be a means of assisting farmers to take their products to market even if there is no profit in running them. There are over two thousand miles of railway in New Zealand, nearly all owned by the government. Our system of managing them can not be beaten. There is no corruption and not a single abuse. The telegraph system belongs entirely to the government. Then we have a government system of insurance which works admirably. Through this we are abolishing all pensions. All government employes, including those connected with the railroads and telegraph system, are compelled to provide for their own insurance out of their salaries.

Our taxation is based on Henry George’s theory of a single tax on land, and we also have an income tax. All legislation is so arranged that there is no taxation on improved land. Land improved and unimproved pays the same tax. Under our income tax we exempt all income under 300 pounds a year, and on incomes from 300 to 1,000 pounds the rate is six pence per pound. On incomes from 1,000 to 2,000 pounds the rate increases from six pence to a shilling, and on incomes above 2,000 pounds it remains a shilling to the pound. Last year we adopted a system of lending money to farmers on both freehold and leasehold lands at*a low' rate of interest, with a 1 per cent sinking fund, which clears off the loan in thir-ty-three years by compound interest. New Zealand has taken the bull by the horns in the question of preventing large holdings of land. As to this Mr. Willis said: We have passed legislation by which we can take back, lands held in large blocks. That is, a bill has been passed giving the government a right to purchase all of one man’s holdings over from one to three thousand acres, depending on the quality, to be decided by arbitration. H does not follow that

much of this will be done yet for awhile until our population increases. Then we have not the money to spare. Government land is now leased for 999 years in small portions form 100 to 500 acres. Any one who wishes to take such land pays a low rate of in- ; terest on the value of the land, and for j the first two years is required to put in a small amount of work until it is in condition to settle on. Then he must live on it. But our people are not satisI fied with that. What we want and , what we shall probably get soon is a ! system of leasing in perpetuity with a ; revaluation from time to time.

We are trying something entirely new in the way of co-operative labor in public work. Instead of letting such work out to contractors, it is cut up into small pieces by the government engineer, who values it at fair working wages, 7 shillings a day, or about $1.75 in your money, and contracts are given out to the men at that rate. This system has been so successful that it is being extended to all work such as painting public buildings, building stations and the like. Probably there will be no contracts let under the old system in the future. In every way, as I have said, we look carefully to the interest of the mass of the people. Our factory girls arc not allowed to work over eight hours a day. children under 14 years of age arc not allowed to work in factories and until they have passed through certain grades in the schools. We compel employers in factories to give a weekly half-holiday: No shops are allowed open on Sunday, and every shop must be closed one day in the week at 1 o’clock in the afternoon. The closing of the shops on Sunday was not at all on secular grounds, but simply to give employes a reasonable amount of rest. The governor sent over by the queen has no veto power over our legislation and is really only a figure-head, for lie has really very little to do with our government. We have home rule in reality. Mr. Willis looks hopefully to the practical workings of the single tax theory as soon as it is adopted in its entirety by the government of his country.—San Francisco Examiner, May 4.