An association has been formed in Australia, at Melbourne, under the name of the Land Tenure Reform League of Victoria,the object of which is to induce the State to cease from selling public lands, and only to grant leases. Mr Mill followed thelabours of this league with the greatest sympathy. (15) The following were the principles on which it was started, and theobject which it had in view, as given in the circular of January 5, 1872. PRINCIPLES.
1. "The revolutions that impend over society are not now from ambition and rapacity; from impatience of one or anotherform of government; but from new modes of thinking, which shall recompense society after a new order, which shall animatelabour by love and science; which shall destroy the value of many kinds of property, and replace all property within thedominion of reason and equity." (Emerson.)2. "The essential principle of property being to assure to all persons what they have produced by their labour, andaccumulated by their abstinence, the principle cannot apply to what is not the produce of labour, the raw material of theearth." (Mill.)
3. The land is the inalienable property of the inhabitants of every country throughout all generations.
4. "No consideration ought to be paramount to that of ****** the land available in the highest degree for the production offood and the employment of industry."
5. Selling the fee-****** of the land is a political misdemeanour, as opposed to justice and reason, as it has proved injuriousto the material and moral interests of society.
6. The alienation of the State lands gives to the landowner the whole improvement in value from the increase of populationand national works. The State Landlord preserves all for the benefit of the people.
7. Land is the State capital, the primal source of food and wealth, and in parting with it our legislators have not only mostiniquitously limited the field of profitable employment, but have burdened the people needlessly with double taxationthe onea highly unjust system to provide a general revenue; the other a direct tax on food and the necessaries of life, to enablelandlords to live in idleness by the labour of others.
8. A rent on State lands being light, and for a manifest benefit, would meet all therequirements of a just and desirable meansof raising revenue. It would be easily and cheaply collected, and would greatly reduce the expenses of government byrendering unnecessary some of the present costly and otherwise hurtful departments.
9. While strictly preserving the right of ownership in land for future generations, the greatest possible facilities for actual andproductive settlement may be afforded.
10. The advantages of almost free land, and the total absence of taxation, would ensure an unexampled condition of steadyprogress and general prosperity.
11. With an absolute ******* from taxation, and full and unfettered scope for industry, every inhabitant of the countrywould enjoy a beneficial interest from his share in the stats lands, whether occupying a portion of these or not.
12. "The best political economy is the care and culture of men." And such a use of the common patrimony, the gift of Godto all, would not only promote to the utmost the material welfare of society, but would raise us mentally in the scale ofnations, by affording the most liberal culture of which each is capable; special privileges, which should be deemed theinherent right of every member of the community.
13. Acting on these principles we would not only do our duty to our own people by conferring on them all the advantagespossible with our present knowledge of political and economic science; but would prove to the world at large what may bedone for the progress of humanity by an enlightened appreciation of the circumstances in which we find ourselves placed. OBJECTS.
1. The immediate cessation of the sale of all Crown lands.
2. The fee ****** of the public domain to vest in perpetuity in the State (that is the people in their corporate capacity).
3. Occupancy, with fixity of tenure, and right of transfer, subject to rental for revenue purposes.
4. Land already alienated from the State to be re-purchased by the State. No re-sale to individuals to be permitted.
5. The gradual abolition of all indirect taxes whatever. The revenue of the State to be derived solely from the rental of theland.
According to Mr R. Savage, who comments on this programme in Tract No. 7 published by the Land Tenure ReformLeague , the commune would manage the lands, as the Hindoo villages did formerly. It would let them, would collect therent, would pay into the Treasury the proportion of the tax due, and would retain the rest for the local requirements ofeducation, roads, police, &c. The numerous advantages offered by communal landed property, as compared with separateproperty, have been well stated by M. Préveraud, a proprietor cultivator. (16) The commune would be able to divide the landinto reasonable farms, just as the English landlord does, and to apply to it a good system of manure, (17)irrigation, and
planting.
We cannot here discuss this system fully. We will merely notice a few points which seem to be beyond dispute. It is certainlya crime against posterity to alienate for a dollar an acre communal lands which, in fifty years, will be worth a hundred timesas much, and the revenue of which would be sufficient to support the whole public service on a magnificent scale. To induceprivate enterprise to cultivate public lands, there is no necessity to alienate the fee ******: a lease for 90 years is enough, as agrant for a shorter term is sufficient in the West End of London for the construction of palatial residences, and on theContinent for the construction of all the railroads in existence. To the individual whose life is so short, a tenure of 90 years isequivalent to perpetual possession; while to the nation, the resuming possession of the soil is a guarantee of future safety.
