LAND AND LABOUR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 16326, 23 August 1913, Page 15

LAND AND LABOUR.

(This column, wcokly set aside for the discussion of land and labour problems, is edited by Mr Arthur Withy, general secretary of tho Now Zealand Land Values League, with whom alono rests the responsibility for tho opinions expressed therein.) RATING ON UNIMPROVED VALUE. CARRIED AT WHANGAREI. On August 6 the borough of Whangarei carried rating on unimproved values by 327 votes to 228, a majority of 99. Tho forces of monopoly and privilege were well-organised, and made a hard fight in favour of tho old system of rating, but a strong local committee was formed for rating on unimproved values, with Mr Joseph Palmer as secretary and Councillor Harrison as chairman, and, very valuable assistance being rendered by the “ Whangaroi Advocate,” tlio day was won. Tho “ Northom Mail”, championed rating on the capital value, but could bring" forward no real arguments in its favour, and the opposition also fought shy of a challenge to debate the question on the public platform with the writer of this column. Finding themselves outclassed in argument, the opponents of rating on unimproved values became desperate and resorted to all sorts of misstatements to bolster up their case.

Finally, on the eve of the poll, they put a column advertisement in tho “Mail,” raising the “single tax” and “confiscation” bogoy, and asserting that if tho proposal was carried the first rate under the new system would bo one of 6d in the £. Happily the local committee found out that this misstatement ivas being circulated, and, as an emergency measure, they decided to roply to it by advertisement in both papers, so thab_ the misstatement and the reply to it appeared in the same issue of the “ Mail.”

Tho reply advertisement did not mince matters. It read, in part, as follows:

“The statement being circulated that under the new system the rate will be 6d in the £ is palpably an untruth, as the following will show:— “Tlie present valuations are: Unimproved value £330,561, improvements £209,758, upon which combined a total of 2d in tho £ is struck.

“To raise the same amount by a rate on the unimproved value will require only 3Jd in the £, and not 6d as falsely stated. “ This would be £1 7s Id on the £IOO, so that a man with a £4OO house on a £IOO section would pay £1 7s Id only under rating on unimproved value, as against £4 3s 4d undor the present system.

“Don’t be deceived by tho bogey of ‘ Confiscation,’ falsely raised by men who wish to continue to hold land idle at your expense. Vote for rating on unimproved vaules.”

Already a movemont is on foot to carry tho fight for rating on unimproved values into the Whangarei County, where it is believed that the proposal, will, as in Thames County, meet with the praotically unanimous approval of the working farmers. AUCKLAND'S ANTIQUATED ARCHITECTURE. Under the abovo heading the “ Auckland Star” reprints a Wellington'interview in which Mr C. J- Parr (Mayor of Auckland), recently roturnea from Australia, said that “ho was greatly impressed with tho superiority of the architecture in Australia ” ; that Brisbane’s “ fine public and private buildings and banks put to shamo Queen Street, Auckland ” ; and that Auckland is “ woefully behind the times ” and “ has the poorest buildings of any main street in a New Zealand city.” As a remedy for this sod state of affairs, “ Mr Parr suggested a school of architecture, and the expenditure of more money.. He pointed out, however, that high land values in Queen Street would probably affect that portion, as, compared with £IOOO a foot in Queen Stroet, Auckland, excellent frontages aro available in Brisbane’s chief thoroughfare at £SOO a foot.” If one can do so without being guilty in the eyes of Auckland peoplo of something very like “ lese majesto,” I would submit that a school of economics —with Auckland’s Mayor in the ABO class!—is what is wanted rather than the school of architecture suggested by Mr Parr; for, in part at least, i.

AUCKLAND’S ANTIQUATED, UNWISE AND UNJUST RATING SYSTEM —a system abandoned years ago by Brisbane, Christchurch and Wellington—is undoubtedly responsible for Auckland’s antiquated architecture. And, as for the suggested “ expenditure of more money,” I would ask—(l) How much more money would need to bo spent to _ bring Auckland’s antiquated architecture up-to-date? and (2) after tho money had been so spent, what would be the rate-penalty lovied year in and year out on those who had been guilty of the crime of spending it on bettor and more handsome buildings? Say that in all a million sterling was spent, on a 5 per cent basis, that would mean an annual rateable value of £50,000; and on this £50,000 a rate of 2s 6d in tho £—and Auckland’s rates, I believe, total rather inoro than that—would mean a rate-penalty of no loss than £0250 a vear on the men who had been foolish enough to take Auckland’s Mayor seriously on this matter. STOP ROBBING THE IMPROVERS. As for tho high land values of Queen Street, a rating system that overtaxes the improver to undertax tho monopolist and the speculator naturqlly lends to keep down tho standard of buildings, both public and private, and to force up land values. But if Auckland wero to stop robbing tho men who improve Auckland, and to rate instead the Queen Street and other land values made by the public, and, therefore, rightly belonging to the public, even if tho change did not result iu lower land values, it would, at all events, greatly reduce tho burdens on tho homes of tho people, and on mills, factories, warehouses and shops—that is, on the trade and industry of the peoplo of Auckland. Surely it is about time that the good folk "of Auckland woke up on this question. But for the great density of Auckland’s population, the city Mould have adopted rating on unimproved values years ago. A COMMON-SENSE ROAD. OUT OF THE~WILDERNESS. ■ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, tho well-known American poetess, writing in tho “ New York American,” in reply to a correspondent, says:— “The Joseph Pels Fund Society, of Cincinnati, which is sending its great streams of helpfulness over all the world and doing its educational work, year after year, in America and Europe, and also in Australia and Now Zealand, would havo been ablo to save Rome and Carthage from ruin bad it existed. “Let my correspondent write to that Society and ask for literature, that she may know what a sane and safe and wiso method of helpfulness is being pursued, and what a common-sense road out of tho wilderness is being cut by some of our world’s workers. “ No satisfactory, lasting benefit can como to America while the earth is owned by a few people. We must have soil before we have homes. “ We must havo tho right to use tho earth for sustenanco before wo can clean out the slums' and thin out tho crowded tenements; and givo mothers a chance to rest, and the time to bring up their children as God meant them to do; and the timo to read and grow aud learn what real motherhood means.

“All the organised charities and all tlie Carnegio libraries, and all the Rockefeller institutes on earth, or tho Morgan galleries, can never solve our awful problems of shameful povorty and shameful wealth. Wo must have the soil for tho people; .and that is what the Joseph Fels Fund Society is giving us, slowly but surely” ARTHUR WITHY.