170 ROOT MATTERS IN SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROBLEMS. 



which, in a rough bush country like Tasmania, would hardly 

 compensate the actual labour of the pioneer bushman in 

 reclaiming it. Here, then, vanishes the last trace of the 

 element in rent supposed to form an important proportion 

 accruing tu the landlord without the expenditure of labour. 



But some may object on the ground that I leave out of 

 consideration the increment from which favoured properties 

 derive the benefit, in consequence of the enhancing effect of 

 subsequent influences (not the proprietor's) as, for example: — 

 (1.) The establishment of a town or city continually 

 raising the value of lands within or near its 

 bounds. 

 (2.) The establishment of roads and railways* atthe public 

 expense — improving means of communication, and 

 saving time and money in the transit of persons 

 and products — and thus directly enhancing or 

 diminishing the value of the property. 

 (3.) The limited nature of naturally fertile land. 

 Such enhancement, for the most part, I fully admit, is in 

 itself an unearned increment, and cannot always justly (from 

 this point of view) be claimed by the proprietor as a value 

 produced by his individual services. 



But it must also be remembered that this increment in the 

 aggregate is already included in the d£2 76,655 present value 

 of aggregate annual rental of all cultivated lands. 



If, therefore, the present annual value of land, with 

 incremental value, does not cover the actual value of the 

 original services in rendering it fit for tillage or stock, it 

 follows either that the exchange value of the land, as a whole,, 

 has fallen below the original cost of services rendered to as 

 great or to a greater extent than property value, as a whole^ 

 has been raised by the unearned increment. It becomes a 

 fair contention, therefore, on the part of the proprietors of 

 land to say that the possible loss from downward fluctuations 

 in the exchange value of land would hinder the development 

 of the occupation and cultivation of wild forest land, or 

 obtain a lower value from purchasers if it were not for the 

 hope that other influences — unearned increment, for example — 

 gave promise, as in other speculations, that such possible 

 losses might be compensated for by such possible gains ; and 

 we might also urge that if the community does not share in 

 the gam of unearned increment it is compensated by its 

 freedom from sharing the actual losses which are brought 

 about frequently by external influences effecting a gradual or 

 sudden depression in exchange value below the original cost 

 of preparing the soil for tillage, or below the price of original 

 purchase. 



* In a colony where these works are constructed at the cost of the pubKc, it must, 

 also be conceded that the proprietor contributed his share of the general cost. 



