UNEMPLOYMENT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 11 October 1926, Page 7

UNEMPLOYMENT.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,: —There is a growing unrest and bitterness among the masses, whatever be the form of government, a. blind groping to escape from conditions becoming intolerable. To attribute all this to the teachings of demagogues is like attributing the fever to the quickened pulse. It is the new win© beginning to ferment in old bottles. To put into a sailing:ship the powerful engines of a modern ocean vessel wohld be to tear her to pieces with their play. $o the new powers rapidly "changing all the realtions of society must shatter . social and political organisations not adapted to meet their strain. To adjust our institutions to growing needs and changing conditions is the task which devolves upon us. Prudence, patriotism, human sympathy, and religious sentiment alike call upon us to undertake it. There is danger in reckless change; but greater danger in blind conservatism. The problems beginning to confront us are grave:—so grave that there is fear that they might not be solved in time to prevent great catnstrophies. But their gravity comes from indisposition to recognise them frankly and grapple boldly with them. These dangers which menace not one country, but modern civilisation itself, do but show that a higher civilisation is struggling to be bom—that the needs and. the aspirations of men have outgrown conditions andi insitutions that before sufficed. Loud above' the din and debating of the League of Nations Assembly is to be heard aloud, though inarticulate, this very question among others: What is the cause of unemployment? The cause -w of unemployment is that- landlords, by ™ their own legislative power and their influence over lawyers, changed themselves into landowners, whereby they present Parliamentary title deeds to cancel Nature’s title deeds. “Thou shaft eat” is Nature’s first commandment to man. and she' scourges the transgressors of this law with her terrible hunger whips. Nevertheless, our Parliamentary title deeds are upheld against Nature’s by all the civil and military power of the- State. Written in Nature’s handwriting all over the being of every man is the law that he shall get access to the land': but written on a piece of parchment is Parliament’s law which confers on: some few the power to control access to land necessary to the life of all. Thus Parliament succeeds in defeating Nature’s purpose. Unemployment and poverty is the result. How does this affect a country? The elder Plinv. at the beginning of the decline of the Roman Empire, wrote thus: “The manner of using the land was considered of the first importance by our ancestors; for their judgment was not to sow more, hut to cultivate better, which opinion was also shared hv Virgil. Tn truth the large estates have been the ruin of Italy (latifnndia perdidere Italiamj, and are now undoing the provinces as

well.” —Pliny : “Natural History,” 18. vii. 3. Arthur Young, in Iris “Travels in France,” written on the eve of the French Revolution, was no less emphatic: “Whenever you stumble on a grand seigneur, even one that is worth millions, you are sure to find' his property desert. All the signs I have seen ' of their greatness are wastes, landes, deserts, fern, ling . Go to their residence. whatever it may Ire. and you would probably find them in the midst ' of ai forest, well peopled with deer, wild hoars, and wolves. Oh! if I were . legislator of France for a day. T would , make such great lords skip again.”— Young: “Travels in France.” August 1 . 29. 1787. Sir H.. Campbell-Bannerman, ‘ \ who led the British Liberals to their ' } greatest victory, at Bolton, on October _ v 1.5, 1903, said: “Our land system is 1 based on privilege. The landlords who * are applauding Mr Chamberlain and 1 flocking to his platforms are wise; in , their generation, for they realise that , his policy will entrench them more , strongly than ever. Our present land .laws cause a greater drag upon trade, ( and are a greater peril, to the standard of living than all the tariffs of Ger- ‘ many, of America, and of our colonies.” 1 Rt. Hon. D. Lloyd George, in Queen’s 1 Hall, London, on December 31. 1909, ( said: “Why is all this overcrowding in the towns? Why is* it that you get » two men running after one iob ? It is r because there is a flood of people who have been flowing steadily from the villages and the rural districts into the towns to find work that they ought to have found at home.” Sir, such is the position here to-day.

and' the question arises: Are we to sit wjth our arms folded and say nothing can be done? Most certainly not. There is a. true and' lasting way to do it; it is to produce more by reviving agriculture, by developing the unimproved lands, and intensively cultivating the land that is held up for specu- . lation. To remove this bad system and make way for a good one> we need a lever —“the lever of land values.” Tax each one who holds land in proportion ■ to the market value of the land ho holds, whether he uses it not. and stop taxing improvements. Viscount Cecil (then M.P. for East Marvlebone), when opposing the land clauses of the Fi- : nance Bill. 1909. said.: “T ouite agree that a large number of honourable ■ gentlemen of Conservative opinions : have pledged themselves to the taxa- i tion of land value. But what for? As < a substitution for our exisiting system of rating, which is a perfectly easv and i -a rational proposition. You have already i the principle that the land contributes to the local rates, and the ouestiom is ] whether the rates should be levied 1 noon the improved value or upon the

site value. This is a fair subject of discussion, and I do not tbink any one would suggest that the alteration from improved' value to site value is Socialism or any extravagant, or novel proposition.” Sir. this is the ideal I would' adopt instead of levving my mates or seeking pensions, fronr the H. and C. hoards hv following Communists. —I am. etc.. SENECA SIMPLEX. Tanga rakau.