CAUSE OF POVERTY

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 255, 25 July 1935, Page 13

CAUSE OF POVERTY

System of Land Tenure

“Prosperity is a condition and does .not depend upon the amount of production. There can be prosperity where there is comparatively small production undertaken by primitive methods. There can be poverty where there is the greatest amount of production produced by the most advanced methods,” said Mr. E. WNicholaus in a lecture at the Theosophical Hall <>r. Sunday evening Poverty existed under widely varying conditions, and one law was common to all countries—the law of private property in land or natural resources. “Prosperity can be said to be the lull enjoyment of the results of one’s labour This can only be achieved under just laws. Production takes place by applying one’s labour to the natural resources of the earth, therefore freedom to get to these resources must obtain as well as the freedom to enjoy the proceeds of labour stated Mr. Nicholaus. Wherever these conditions had reigned there prosperity had grown. Wherever tiie contrary conditions had prevailed there bad poverty descended and ewelled. Therefore it rested with tiie economic system, or manmade laws, whether prosperity or poverty should prevail, irrespective of population. ‘‘The right of access to the land is the crux of our difficulties,” the lecturer continued. “Whether all people shall own the land in common, with, the exclusive right of the private individual to exclusive occupancy, and the right to the full results of his labour; or whether land shall be held to be the private property of the individual to the exclusion of all others.”