OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 477, 8 July 1890, Page 3

OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

[from our own correspondent.*] Sydney, July 4. The little cloud on the American horizon, at first no bigger than a man’s hand, is assuming threatening proportions. I refer of course to the dispute about the Newfoundland fisheries. At first it was thought to be a misunderstanding which could easily be removed by diplomacy in the ordinary way. But the tenacity with which the French insist on the fulfilment of the very letter of their claims and the promptness with which they have resorted to warlike measures to enforce them, have opened the eyes of the mercantile public to the fact that we are once more within measurable distance of the actual danger of war, with all its far-reach-ing consequences.

Once this idea is entertained the evidence in favor of it appears very strong. The Newfoundland people claim certain rights to the lucrative fisheries on their coast and are in a state of chronic resentment by reason of the encroachments of French and American fishermen. Both to France and to the United States certain rights are conceded by treaty with Great Britain, and these rights when overstepped or even when urged to their utmost extent in a hostile spirit furnish a fruitful souice of quarrels and disaffection. The Newfoundlanders declare that their interests are being sacrificed by the mother country. The French and the Americans allege, with equal show of reason, that their subjects whilst engaged in their lawful avocations are treated in an unneighhorly manner. In the United States, Secretary Blaine, who recently assumed the portfolio which gives him control of the foreign policy of the republic, is more than suspected of a strong desire for tbe practical assertion of the Monroe dectrine by the extension of the protection of the United States to Canadian territory. A struggle between France and England about the regulation of American fisheries will furnish him with the best text he could desire for enforcing the national sentiment, “America for the Americans.'’ In the interests of American fishermen, whose claims are similar in principle to those of the French, Mr Blaine in all probability has a private understanding with the French Government, whilst, on the other hand, his Monroe proclivities will prompt him to demonstrate that the problem is insoluble by European Governments, and must ba remitted to American arbitration. His influence, therefore, it is reasonable to assume, will not be exerted in the direction of removing the difficulty, except upon his own terms, which are not likely to be acceptable to either of the powers directly interested.

•* Turning to Europe, a host cf circumstances, in themselves trivial, but of considerable power when p.il combined, go to show that it is by no means improbable that warlike designs are harboured by at least two of the great power®, and that the Newfoundland incident would furnish as convenient a casus belli as any other. Russia has recently contracted another great loan, nominally for the purpose of paying off some of her other obligations. But in the history of Russia the! possession cf funds always means preparation! for conquest, whatever may have Deen the pre J text by which it has been raised. Moreover] for some time past keen observers havJ declared that- noihing but a great war (whicll should centre the patriotic feeling on tha Czar) can avert a terrible revolution. Further! it is notorious that France has be.en making advances to Russia and that both cf them] but each apparently on its own account, have! been throwing difficulties in the way of Eng-1 land in her Eastern policy. Singly or together] these considerations are a long way froml being conclusive. But when they are read in I conjunction with the undeniable fact that France has so far oast aside diplomacy as to attempt to gain her ends by force of arms on British territory, they gather a significance which would not o:harwise belong to them. What has all this to do with Sydney affairs, my reader niay ask. Simply this, that a European war in which Great Britain was one of the combatants would effect the most startling changes. Wheat would increase in price immensely, owing to the desire that would at once be manifested to lay in stocks. The same impulse would operate in many lines of merchandise, whilst the cost of the transmission of goods would be enormously enhanced by increased freight and insurance at war risk. The mm who had a slock laid in at pricas now current would make a fo - tune by the mere increment. On tbe other band the man who had forward contracts to deliver would suffer in proportion. Although the actual fighting might not come near us, it would effect a wonderful change in commercial and social relations. However, later cablegrams are of a more pacific character, and it is to be hoped that the Newfoundland breaches of tha peace are the indefensible acts of a hotheaded commander, and not the deliberate and deeply planned insults of a hostile power.

Henry George left finally on Tuesday, en route for London via Melbourne, Adelaide, and Brindisi. An enthusiastic body of supporters bade him farewell, and his visit to New South Wales has not been fruitless. There are of course many who repudiate all connection with the “ single-tax ” because they regard it as an attempt to drive the big end of the wedge first. Any attempt on the part of any legislature to abolish all other taxes and rely solely on the taxation of the unearned increment in the value of land would destroy mercantile confidence, would burst up every bank, insurance company and building society which had advanced money on landed security, and would be, in short, nearly as disastrous to our present commercial system as was the French Revolution to the ancien regime. But for all that, the dominant principle of the ancien regime was evil and false. The disasters which followed its overturn were not due to any flaw in the formula Ziberte./mteniite, egalife, but to the suddenness and want of judgment with which the change was effected, and which have furnished future ages with an unanswerab’e argument against sudden and explosive changes. The fact that Mr George’s lectures have impressed upon us is that there is an immense fund in the unearned increment of land which is the creation of the State, which rightly belongs to the State, and which therefore may be rightfully levied upon in such cautious and well-considered measure as shall not unduly disturb the existing state of affairs, but shall aim at gradually superseding it without causing any unnecessary cataclysm, or unduly alarming the susceptibilities of capital. Public opinion is largely in favor of a land fax, and the only equitable land tax that can be levied is one that shall be calculated upon tha unearned increment. Any other will be a tax upon industry, enterprise,, and the expenditure of capital. Suppose a beginning was made with one per cent, on the unearned value. No one would feel it, and as to the balance of taxation required, it would be left, as now, for the resultant of political forces to determine what direction it should take. The tax could be increased by degrees, each as practically imperceptible as the initiatory step. Those wbo advocate it have no need to declare war against capital by talking about config cation, still less do they’need to set themselves in opposition to protection, to a heavy tax upon spirits, or to the preconceived opinions of any other powerful faction in the country. But, whether or not this mode of action is adopted, the fact remains that the unearned increment in the value of land belongs to the State as a whole, and that sooner or later the State will have it. Whether by steps that are statesmanlike, mild and well-chosen, or by those that are revolutionary, drastic, and severe, depends largely on the attitude of those who seek to keep the State from obtaining its own for the good of the people generally. They may either ease the boiler by making timely concessions as the pressure increases, or they may eifc on the safety-valve till it bursts. The former is the course that is generally adopted by the good sense of AngloSaxon communities, and there is every reason to hope that this instance will form no exception to the general rule.

One encouraging feature is the countenance that has been given to Mr George by religious bodies. The Congregationalists allowed him to use their church to preach in, and in many other denominations, whilst there, has not been any formal or avowed adhesion to his doctrines in their entirety, individual members have taken opportunity to express their admiration for a man who has dirteled his aiiebtton to a great wrong.

who, like their Master, is pleading the cause of ihe poor, and wbo has devoted his whole life to the preaching of a doctrine which, though the common people hear it gladly’ finds but little acceptance in high places. The Sunday before he left Mr George waf waited upon by a deputatioh of members oi tha New Church and expressed hia appreciation of doctrines accepted by that bodydoctrines 1 may remark which teach that in the present age the reign of truth and equity is gradually being brought about. But as some of those doctrines are advertised in your I need not say anything moro about them except to remark that they are influencing a great number of respective minds.