SIR GEORGE FOWLDS

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 204, 29 August 1934, Page 11

SIR GEORGE FOWLDS

HIS GREATER WORK

LAND AND SOCIETY.

DISCIPLE OF HENRY GEORGE

(By C. H. NIGHTINGALE.)

Twenty odd years ago a man preeminent in all the attributes which should qualify for a leading position in the counsels and governance of the nation, lost hie seat jn the: Xew Zealand Parliament to a man whose success was <lne to party manoeuvring. Universally it i<3 deplored that citizens, of ability, integrity and worth do not come forward to serve in the Legislative halls: have we not here in the party-run-mad system one potent reaeon? Sir George Fowlds lost his place in Parliament as the elect of Grey Lynn in 1911, never to regain it. What a tribute to the intelligence of the elector.-; concerned, and to the working of an evil Parliamentary machine! The only known democratic remedy for electoral catastrophic* such as this, proportional representation, found an ardent and valiant supporter ill Sir George, as did. indeed, all real reforms which appeared on his economic and political horizon. I7e wa« a great all-rounder, a man of many and varied parts, presenting in his moral, intellectual and social qualities many facets, all of which .shone pure and true. Had his advocacy of electoral reform l>cen heeded and accepted he would have regained his place m the Legislature of Xew Zealand, and, given the requisite support, have changed the social and economic condition* of the Dominion infinitely for the better.

Land Reform. Sir Goorjto will be eulogised and remembered for the tilings he visibly achieved in the way. principally, of education: by the things seen, rather than by the things unseen. To the Press, and the people of Xew Zealand in the mas.-;, his activities in this and ill other spheres of valuable, tangible work on day to day matters of importance for the social welfare, make up the bulk of his work in life; but to some of us who had little contact with him in such matters, but who were privileged to work with him ill the infinitely more important and humanity uplifting labour he essayed (without achieving in his day), of teaching and bringing to fruition the philosophy of Henry George, the real aspirations and ideals of the man were intimately revealed. That was the great work he set himself throughout life since, as a young man in Scotland, ho realised the profound truths propounded by the great American philosopher (whom Professor John Dewey. of Columbia University, declared ranked within the first ten of the great men of the world since the time of Plato), and the revolutionary effect their application must have in * the elimination from society of poverty and that cancer of civilisation, the fear of want.

In political matters his was not "an inclination to the left" , ; it was a pressing onwards to the right. Did he fail? Does anyone fail who advocates and labours for fundamentally sound reforms for the uplifting and liberation of the many? Who preaches the philosophy of Justice and Freedom? Who will dare to say that the natural, and equal, rights of the people to the one. and only source of their (material) life are not inalienable and paramount over all legal codes and enactments, deeds and customs? In the restoration of the land to the people, (which docs not necessarily mean putting the people back on the land) Sir George Fowls perceived the dawn of economic justice and freedom. Private ownership of land, he held, was at the root of all economic' and most social evils. He saw through the problem of the maldistribution of wealth, the obstruction of production and trade, and the blighting existence of monopolies, where others merely visualised the superficies. In the' value that land assumes by the coming together of people into communities he sensed a Divine dispensation, a natural lav as postulated by Henry George, to provide for the costs'entailed in the provision of the common needs and necessary utilities of such communities. He realised that all benefits obtained, not only in the economic, but in the social and political fields, were rendered nugatory so long as such benefits manifest themselves in land values —as they must do—and while these values arc permitted to be privately owned and appropriated.

World-wide Force. He would therefore have been the first to agree that the. work he himself accomplished for education and otherwise in New Zealand would not be of lasting benefit to the mass of the people unless, and until, this great wrong —the private ownership of the planet we inhabit —were remedied on Henry George lines. He preached the little-known truth that private property in land constituted the base of practically all economic monopolies, capital or otherwise, and in this showed the futility of Socialistic attacks on capital per se. The movement lacks political organisation;* it knows no party or caucus. It is a world-wide educative force and is rapidly leaveniiifr advanced opinion in nearly all civilised communities. It has had its effect on the legislative enactments in many countries, and the time is rapidly approaching when the cause of economic and social justice and freedom will l>e won. Then, Sir George Fowlds will be remembered for his greater work.