OWNERSHIP OF LAND

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 127, 25 November 1935, Page 18

OWNERSHIP OF LAND

MR. NICOLAUS'S CAMPAIGN

A large and enthusiastic audience greeted Mr. E. W. Nicolaus, the Commonwealth Land Party candidate for Wellington East at the Kinema Theatre, Kilbirnie, last night.

On the stage, were large diagrams showing how taxation burdened' labovu- and working capital today; the share of production taken by the • private owners of land; how international trade took place and how produce sent to Great Britain paid for imports from countries which took little or no produce from New Zealand, as well as a clear demonstration of the working of the C.L.P. policy. The speaker showed how taxation had been imposed upon the masses in 1660, without their knowledge or consent, by the landholders of England. "This system has been imported to New Zealand also without the consent of the people," said Mr. Nicolaus, "and it is time it was abolished."

Land rent was the measure of the increased production made possible by the effort of labour, in industry, the increase of population, and the natural advantage attaching to particular land. It was a community-created value which by all canons of justice and equity must be paid into the public treasury, releasing labour and industry from all taxation.

The meeting closed with a unanimous vote of thanks and confidence. Mr. R. Thomson presided.

Mr. Nicolaus addressed a large meeting outside the Kilbirnie Post Office on. Saturday night. He criticised ■ the education given students, especially at the high schools and universities. "It is extraordinary that these students are taught that land is wealth. The owning of a title to land is not wealth," said Mr. Nicolaus. "It is' only a title to appropriate wealth from labour and capital, the producers. It is.a blot upon the education system that such untruths are instilled into the minds of youth, that they should be brought up to look upon the 'owners' of land as people rightfully entitled to exact from anyone who wanted and had'to use land, the greater share of their production." In English law there was no such thing as an "owner" of land. The Crown did not recognise such persons, and it was time that the Crown reasserted its right to resume possession of land rent for the upkeep of Government, a right which today stood upon the Statutes of Great Britain.