LAND VALUES LEAGUE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 14, 16 July 1931, Page 4

LAND VALUES LEAGUE

THE WAGE REDUCTIONS

PROTEST RECORDED

A meeting of the Wellington branch of the Now Zealand Land Values League was held in the Trades Hall last evening, Mr. P. J. O'Kegau presiding. There waß an exceptionally good attendance, of members and great interest was evinced •in - the proceedings.

The chairman said that Henry George and his followers had been called cranks and faddists, but the so-called practical politicians who dogmatise thus had made such a'muddle of things that the state of society in every civilised. country was chaotic, and in the present crisis our socalled educated men were helpless and bewildered. There was • nothing in the situation that had not been forecasted by Henry George in "Progress and Poverty;" and in fact the position was quite simple to anyone who would look at the realities. Suppose New Zealand to. be in a state of nature as it was when Captain Cook discovered it in 1769, and supposing all the unemployed men in New Zealand to-day were put ashore and left there, they could go to 'work, and would require no relief from any one whatever beyond the right to exchange the produce of their labours with other men who produce different commodities. LAND COMMON PROPERTY. The fundamental truth to be insisted upon was that the land was the common property of the people of the country who live in it for the time being, and that the right to produce wealth involved the right to exchange that wealth freely as -each individual thought best. The hatred engendered by the war had been taken advantage .of to the full by Protectionists everywhere, and to-day ive beheld. the | humiliating spectacle of so-called civilised I and Christian States snarling at each other from behind barbed-wire entanglements. ■While such a state of things continued it was absurd to say that ■ the war had ended, and until the tariff barriers were levelled and land freed .by, proper "taxation, there was no escape from the morass in which we found ourselves. ; . Several members expressed the. opinion that Mr. O'Eegan should continue the lectures he had given last year, and general satisfaction wa_s expressed when' he "replied that he intended, to deliver .several publiev.addresses: at-an early, date.' .;'^-.;.jRESO^UtI'ONS.':P"ASSED-..".'.-"--.-The fbllo^ying resolutions were.-passcd:-^ '• "Thai;', this league .denounces.the. .ixduc.tioi of:,'wages recently 'ordained by the Government and approved .by the Court of Arbitration, as impolitic;-mischievous, and indefensible for the following reasons:— (1) Because it proceeds on the assumption that the prevailing depression is due to high wages, in fact it is duetto the stifling of production by ' land monopoly and the hindrance placed in the way of trade by our monstrous tariff.-' (2) Because -.the , purchasing.-power: of • the people depends, on. their.earnings, and there■- ■ duction. _oi'those earnings will accordingly, redact on the business of the community,-and-.(3) because the insistence on wage reduction diverts public attention from the real'; causes of the .depression. Finally; we. extend .our sympathy1 to' those affected by.'the attack on wages', and -we 'ask them'to-remember that they are elect-, prs of the country and; to bear in mind that the' politicians who' summoned a special session; 'to; reduce wages'have refused to repeal' the', inoistrous : duties on .wheat and flour." .■■.*.;..'..;■..,. ...'' •■:.'.'!

"That this league is "opposed to tho suggestion that public'"hospitals should be .-financed either by a lotteryl or any further raid ".on the transport ; industry, The cost 'of hospitals an 3. charitable aid i?.-histori-cally- andVproperjy .a charge .upon property, and we affirm 'that,, inasmuch:- as land •monopoly is the sole cause of the poverty which disgraces the community, the .cost of hospitals and public charity should be charged jfco.it accordingly." . "That this' league re-aflirms its opposition to those. provisions of-the Municipal Corporations Act, in operation since-1902, ..which permit: the "transfer.;pf/the Surplus ''reyenues.'of-tnunicipar'trade .undertakings "to the KfeneraPaccount.'of whifch'the latest' illustration is the transfer by the Wellington City Council-«f f £10;000-from the eleetrift.;-.]ighting ;to '.the.^general account,, and we insist "thait'as a''matter of public policy .the' stirplus reyepues' of such public convenience's as lightingjltramways,; etc., should be applied in reducing the-charges for these public services, to the users."- .