Who Created the Value.

He ventured to say that all the people of the colony had contributed to make this increased value. He would ask them another thing. What had become of this £13,000,000? They might search the Government Blue Books; no account of investments representing these £13,000,000 would be found. It had not been placed in the Bank of England, nor had it been invested in English consols, stock, or railways. Where then was it? What had been done with it? They would be told that it had been spent in the country in public improvements—"public improvements;" that sounded very nice—but had the public got the benefit of them. (A voice: "Yes;" other voices: "No.") Many seemed to think that the public had received the benefit of this expenditure. The public indeed saw these improvements, but that was not the same thing as having them. The land-owners had really got the whole of these £13,000,000 of improvements; and the landless people had to pay more rent to the landlords be-cause that money had been spent. The public improvements surrounded the lands which had been sold for the £13,000,000. Did the wage-earners get any of it? Yes, he would be told, for labour would be employed in making the improvements; but when the labourer was employed did he not give an equivalent for what he received? If he, Mr. Withy, gave the chairman two shillings and sixpence, and the chairman handed him back half-a-crown, could he be said to have really given the chairman anything. So, when they employed a man and gave him 5s or 10s a day for his work, he gave them back that 5s or 10s in the shape of work done. The land-owner had not returned anything.