AUCKLAND INSTITUTE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 145, 19 June 1894, Page 2

AUCKLAND INSTITUTE.

* EFFECTS OF VARIOUS LAND , TENURES. Mr J. H. Upton presided at the meeting||| of the Auckland Institute last night, when, notwithstanding the unpleasant state of - the weather, there was a good attendance. Mr E. Withy read a paper upon the "" Economic Effects of Various Land : Tenuree," which went into the whole , question of the private ownership of land. He contended thab the economic effect ofs|| the freehold tenure on the general well being of the people was injurious. He believed thab the chauges which came about when people left the land and broke up the V primitive condition had resulted in the :; formation of an unemployed class. During ,' the primitive period no man would work,., for another for less than he could make on?H his own land, bub in the divided labour period a man must take the competition wage or remain idle, aa a vast taumber uadiw no holdings. This was a system which, gave all the benefits to one claas and denied them to the rest. By means of a "'■;•» diagram the lecturer showed how retkTinv , creased as a country became settled. Ho , did not believe bhab the unemployed class was due to currency or tariff, but purely to private ownership of land. Mr Withy concladed by giving a number of reasons for his objection to private ownership of laßd, and said that the older the country the nearer to bursting pressure became the inr tolerable conditions under which the poor / and the unemployed had to live. Mr F. G., Ewington pointed out that, although there was nob the same sorb of unemployed class in primitive times as they found in modern times and cities, there was an improvident and idle claea. Davoted Jesuit* had tried to elevate aboriginal u\ tribes in Peru and Africa and found ib most • difficult to make them provident. They , even ate their seeds requisite for the next) seasons crops and the yoke oxen. There was there an unemployed class from choice although no private landowning. So there Was and is amongeo the Maoris under communal tenure. The fact was, thab floods, ; ; v fires, famines, change of fashion and wars threw men out of work and caused an unemDloyed class. Aloreover the State would be no better a landlord than the private owners and the economic effects^ would be no better. - Mr Upton, in moving a vote of thanks to < the speaker, pointed out thab in the prim- f . itive period when there were no unemployed^: there was slavery. The vote of thanks was adopted. ' ~ ' 1