HENRY GEORGE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 296, 8 September 1908, Page 7

HENRY GEORGE.

SINGLE TAXERS KEEP HIS BIRTHDAY. About 40 Single Taxers dined together at the Hotel Windsor last evening in commemoration of the anniversary of the birthday of Honry George. Mr. P. J. O'Regan presided. Among thoso presont was' Mr. A. W. Hogg, M.P. Apologies'for absence wore received from tho Hon. G. Fowlds, and Messrs. G. Laurenson and H. G. Ell, M.P.'s, and a number of other gentlemen. The chairman said that it was intended that tho function should bo an annual one, as was tho case in many cities in America and .Great Britain. Thero wore moro Single Taxers in Wellington than most people wore awaro of. Proceoding, tho chairman sketched the career of Henry George and the steps by which he camo to formulate his economic teaching, starting from tho famous words in which tho Declaration of Independence described the functions of' government as bel ing to conserve the rights of man, and reaching tho conclusion that private proporty in land is inconsistent with those rights. Tho progress of the Single Tax movoment in various countries was reviewed by Mr. O'Regan. In New Zealand thero had been great progress. If as much were effected in .this direction during. tho next 15 years as had been done during the last 15, almost all opposition would then havo been broken down. Fourteen yearg of industrial arbitration had left tho labour problem in New Zealand still unsolved. • It was impossible for. tho State to rogulato wages successfully, and such increases of wages' as had been ■ effected wero really valueless to tho worker. He endorsed tho statement mado officially by Mr. E. Tregoar a few years ago that tho - inorca'ses in wages had been swallowed up by rent, but he had no faith in Mr. Trogear's remedy of _ purchasing blocks of suburban land and building workers' dwellings thereon. Mr. O'Regan wont on to say: "I can speak with the more freedom on thie subject because I havo now practically severed my connection with tho Wellington Conciliation Board, and I will say that I hope nothing i from the principlo of industrial arbitration .while tho land quostion remains unsettled. It is n«t only in Wellington, but go to Wauganui, to Hastings, and to other provincial towns, and you will find that tho working moii aro' unablo to mako both ends meet, because .of tho rents they havo to pay. Thoy wanted a land system that would do away with speculation, and make industrial arbitration unnecessary—a system based on becauso only thus was it possible to bring about industrial peaco." (Applauso.) Mr. A. W. Hogg, M.P., said that though not a member of tlio single tax organisation, or any other political organisation, lie was glad to be thero as a guest. Ho hoped tho progress of tho next 15 years would bo much moro rapid than in the last 15. (Hear, hear.) ' v Mr. J. Piper, of Potone, said that had tho Government gono about tho purchaso of land for workers' dwellings at Petone in tho proper way, thoy could havo let tho cottages at Bs. a week, and no landlord could got then moro than 10s. a week for similar houses. The reason why tho dwellings woro not let moro readily was that they were not tho right sort of houses. Mr. T. Lynch gavo somo personal rominisconces of Henry Georgo's' campaign for tho New York mayoralty, in which ho lost his life, and tho groat funeral demonstrations which followed. Addresses wero also delivered by Messrs. E. T. Evans, W. M'Lean and other speakers.