"Majorities Must Rule."

Some will exclaim: "Oh! but majorities must rule."

Must they? Not unless they are right and just.

The majority cried "Barabbas!" The majority condemned Galileo. The majority goaded America to rebellion and lost her to England. The majority has swamped Poland. The majority is sometimes unbearably tyrannical. The majority to-day may be the minority to-morrow—it frequently changes, but right is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. Hence the value of the Legislative Council, which being raised above the turmoil of prejudice of the Lower House can block unjust and hasty Bills.

De Tocqueville once said: "If ever liberty is lost in America, the fault will be with the omnipotence of the majority in driving the minority to despair." Mill said that "the institution of society should make provision for keeping up . . . as a shelter for freedom of thought and individuality of character, a perpetual and standing opposition to the will of the majority." America is finding that some of her greatest dangers result from the unlimited power of the majority—it is threatening freedom of speech and civil liberty.

If a majority of the landless in New Zealand decreed, through their representatives, "Land nationalisation without compensation" the minority would have sufficient spirit left to them to appeal to "a more fundamental law than legislation." Governments and Parliaments have no more moral right to rob than individuals have. When they attempt robbery, they must be resisted. To nationalise the land which the State has been paid for, without compensating the owners, would be robbery. Single-taxers would not have the State take the land; they would only make it take all its value for occupation. Like Henry George, they would take the kernel and leave the shell, because they say: "Historically, as ethically, private property in land is robbery " (Progress and Poverty, p. 262). "When the will of the majority is opposed to the eternal law of right, then men who deserve the name of men, will not submit to it.