LABOUR COLUMN.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 16034, 14 September 1912, Page 16

LABOUR COLUMN.

(By D.G.S.) TRADES AND LABOUR COUNCIL HAUL. Meetings for week ending Friday, September 20. l'Jl2: Saturday, Seplcmbor 14—Bakers and Confectionery Workers’ Union; Slaughtermen's committee. Sunday, September lE—Public Lecture, Social Hull. Monday. September IG—Amalgamated Society of Carpenters’ Union (special); Butchers’ Union; lletnl Workers’ Assistants’ Union, special meeting. Tuesday, Soptember 17 —Ocneral Labourers’ Union, quarterly meeting; Boilermakers' Union; Bricklayers’ Union; Labour Representation Committee; Bee-keepers’ Association. Wednesday, September IS—Furniture Trade Union. Thursday, September 10—Trades Council Executive Commitiee. Friday, September 20 —Timber and Coal Yards Employees’ Union; Tinsmiths’ Union.

“The rise in tho price of town land has, I think, increased tho cost of living. Tho iirst charge on a man’s wages is his rent. If the prico of land increases in areas where tho majority of workers live, it stands to reason that rents must increase in consequence. This increaso applies not only to tho workers’, living area, but also to tho distributing area. If the rents of shops and warehouses increase, so must tho cost of food and clothing, which passes through those distributing areas, increase. Tho unimproved value of land in tho city of Christchurch has increased during the last ton years. The official Year Book shows that in the City of Christchurch Central Ward tho uniinprovc-d value in 1891 was £1,820,770, and in March, 1011, it was £3,108,093, an increaso of £1,257,323. This increase in the unimproved prico of land must result in higher rents and a greater cost of distribution. The chief remedy for this lies in spreading the living, area.”—(Mr C. H. Ensor, beforo the Cost of Living Commission.)

“As far as wo aro conebmcd as a people in connection with the cost of living, if more. mouths come into tho city and less into tho country, the cost of living .must increase. What is wanted to-day is more production through our country, and that means moro work for tho cities and railways and so forth. But unless the labour conditions aro dealt with, and dealt with very quickly, all through New Zealand living is going to bo considerably dearer than beforo.” Mr Macdonald: “You mean that the proportion of tho population will have to ho altered?” Mr Jones: “ Yes. For tho first time in New Zealand history there are moro people in tho cities than in the country, and tho reverse ought to be tho caso.”—(Mr D. Jones, befor© tho Cost of Living Commiasiou.) “ At the Land Ballot held yesterday in Auckland no fewer than 931 applicants applied for 101 sections, aggregating 29,607 aci-03. Theso applicants made up a body of would-be settlers, of whom any country might he proud, yet in a country full of wasto land only 101 could possibly bo satisfied, tho remainder being turned away with lamentably little hop© of immediate redress.” —(“New Zealand Herald,” October 27, 1911.) “ That" in the opinion of the Commission such a land policy is required as will break down land monopoly in town and country. Wo believe that this will bo best accomplished by such a taxation of land values, as shall secure to the State a portion of the value created by the State whilst guaranteeing to the land owner the full fruits of his own industry and to ensuro to tho community tho most economical distribution of the fund thus built up. ... To overcome tho lack of housing for families in the country districts the Commission suggests, The provision of e-mail holdings sufficiently largo to enable tbo holder and his family to live independent of outside emnloymcnt if necessary. . . . Tho extension of village settlements m proximity to towns. . • . Tho Commission believes that thoso remedies will tend to roliovo unemployment in the cities, shortago of labour, in the country, increaso of productivity or land, and raiso tho physical and ethical standard of tho nation.”—(Report of the Cost of Living Commission.)

Is not tho Farmers’ Union in a quandary? Giving evidence before tho Cost of Living Commission its representatives, Messrs Ensor and Jones, both deplored tho fact that the people were being congested in the cities ol New Zealand, and elaborated upon tho evil results flowing from such a position.- Tho concentration of peoplo in tho cities limits production in the country, gluts the labour market ill the towns, and thus breeds poverty and crime. Yet what solution of tho problem is being put forward by tho Farmers’ Union? I am aware that Mr Ensor has in his mind the vague outline of somo system of co-partnership, but will his colleagues endorse it? I have never heard or road of even ono of thorn doing so. Tho only feasible proposal beforo the country is that put, forward by tho United Labour Party and practically endorsed by the Cost of Living Commission’s report, providing for tho taxation of all community created land values, thus killing speculative values, cheapening land and consequently fnaking it more easily available, and, as the Commission affirms, relieving tho labour market by giving tlio workers access to the soil, a right denied them to-day by reason of the monopoly that exists. It is idle to affirm, as tho Farmers’ Union advocates so often do, that the land policy of the United Labour Party is designed to penalise tho fanners. Tho Labour Party regards the farmer as an extremely useful fellow worker, who ought, in his own best interests, to be inside the Labour Party. If the Labour Party proposes an increaso in the land tax, it also proposes that tho farmer l>o relieved or all other taxes, and wo are convinced that tho chango would be to tho advantage of the genuine farmer, rather than to his detriment. Surely he can recognise—certainly Mr Ensor should from his study of tho question—that land values are greater ill tlio densely populated cities than in tlio scarco populated rural districts, and consequently would havo to bear tho bulk of taxation, as Henry Georgo says. Now supposing wo should abolisli all other taxes direct and indirect, substituting for (hem a tax upon land values what would bo the effect? “I u tho first place, it would bo to kill speculative values. It would bo to remove from tho nower parts of tho country tho bulk of tho taxation and put it on tho richer parts. It would bo to exempt tho pioneer from taxation and mako tho larger cities pay more of it.” Tho Labour Party does not stand for tho single tax. It recognises tlio necessity for protecting our New Zealand industries, but would remove tho taxation on all articles imported hero, and which cannot bo produced in Now Zealand. It would provent tho exploiting of the peoplo generally by tlio establishing of Stato compositive industries, and would apply part of tlio proceeds of tho land tax‘to the reduction of railway freights and fares. Mr Verrall need not worry about our industries; tho workers will take good cars of them. Hie argument about the injustico of taxing tlio unimproved values, tho _ capitalist rent of which '■ lias boon paid in tlio shapo of purchase money, raises tho question of whether a man who has paid tlio full market price for goods, which aro afterwards proved to havo been stolen, has any right to them. The law say 3 no, and at best tho purchaser of land values pays for past and present values, not future values. Tho experience of recent events in the Labour world has proved as every previous experience has shown, that, though tho strike may be successful

occasionally and in peculiar circumstances, it is useless as a means of permanently and securely advancing the welfare of Labour. The futility of tbo strike as a means of realising tho higher aims of Labour has net yet been brought home to all tho working class by recant events; but tho miners’strike should have convinced every workman with a capacity to observe arid think that there is a reserve power in tho community which makes it absolute folly to think that a general strike can ever taka the place of political action. “The partial conquest of political power which the workers havo made has dono more for them in six years than all the strikes they ever waged or. ever will wage.” (Philip Snowden, British Labour M.P.) 198 S