Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1891-09-03
NEW SOUTH WALEs.
The Late Election Was Not Protection
list Victory.

The cable has reported the defeat in
New South Wales of the Free Trade
party and the election of d Protection
protectionists and labor men. When
the labor men, who held the balance Of
power, voted against dcposing the old
free trade ministry the condition of
affairs was a puzzle here; but the fol-
lowing letter, published in the New
York World, throws n flood of light
upon the situation, and shows that there
has been complete revolution in New
South Wales, and that radical free
trade with its single tax tail is in the
ascendant:
Instead of being q protectionist vic
tory, as the cable seemed to indicate,
the last general election in New South
Wales was in reality victory of the
more radical free trade sentiment. Up
to the last year the political division has
been into free traders and protec.
tionists, Sir Henry Parks, the free trade
leader, having won the previous cleo
ton by very narrow majority. These
official free traders were, however, not
really free traders, but what would be
called in the United States tariff re-
formers, and were largely composed of
the large landhoders and conservative
classes, while the protection strength
came mainly from the Democratic senti-
ments and the labor unions. The stu
alton has been altered by the rise of an
element that is at once in sympathy
with the labor movement and Demo-
cratic sentiment and for absolute free
tradn-tha 81 r1n % ,,..nl a.
abolish all tariffs whatsoever, and raise
all revenues from the taxation of land
values, irrespective Of improvements.
The change in the composition of the
new parliament that left Sir Henry
Parks without an official majority, was
not the gains of the protectioni.ti, but
the return of SO candidates nominated
by the Labor Electoral League. The
platform of the league contained moth
ing directly about either protection or
| free trade, but it declared emphatically
for the single tax principle, which in
| wolves free trade in Its most aggressive
form. Its principle planks are: One
man one vote, universal adult suffrage,
electoral reform and the taxation OF
land values irrespective OF improve.
ments. After declaring the taxation OF
| Improvements to be unjust and in.
furious, the resolutions demand:
The recognition i'll our Legislative
enactments of the natural and inalien.
able rights of the whole community tc
the land-upon which all must live and
from which by labor nil wealth is pro.
duced-by the taxation of that value
that accrues to the land by the presence
and needs of the community, irrespec.
tive of improvements effected by human
exertion; and the absolute and indefea.
sible right of property of all crown
tenants in improvements effected on
their holdings.
Thus, while the official free trader:
have in the new parliament been shorn
of their small majority, the free trade
principle has gained both in numbers
and aggressivencss, and Sir Henry Parks
has, on division, been retained as
premier. In the other Australian
colonies, where protection was stronger
than in New South Wales, the SAINT
tendency is showing itself, and protec.
zionist strength among the workingmer
seems to have been cut in twain by the
rise of the single tax idea.