MR. FOWLDS IN AUSTRALIA

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13070, 9 January 1906, Page 3

MR. FOWLDS IN AUSTRALIA

SPEECH AT SYDNEY.'

At the New South Wales Alliance Hall, Pitt-street, Sydney, on December 30, Mr. Fowlds, M.11.R..' in the. course of an address, said in New Zealand the loaders of the temperance movement were people who were imbued with a sens© of tho groat injustice, the great evil, of private appropriation of rent, and they were also people who were working for the institution, of land value taxation. Discussions had taken place in New Zealand as to which of the two reforms was most essential, and the agreement come to amongst those who looked at the question from both sides was that the single tax reform was of necessity th« larger of the two, the most fundamental of the two reforms, without which no economic) improvement could be made- in tho law of mankind. But they had also, come to tho conclusion that in point of time the nolioense movement must take precedence. That was the pdsit'ion in New' Zealand. He had be-on asked to give some of the reasons of the success of these movements in New Zealand. The only reason to his mind of the success of the movements was that both had been consecrated as religious movements. The men who wove fighting for these reforms were fighting for them because, it was part of their duty to God to do it, and because in that they believed they were working out their very highest conceptions of religious duty. An advance had been made in the temperance cause in Now Kouth Wales by tho passing of the Liquor Act. But the temperance reformers hero did not know what was before them. They had to face tho future hopefully. They had not yet got into the death-grip with the liquor trade, as t-hoy in New Zealand had, but when they did they would find that influences would be directed against them and money spent; that misrepresentation and persecution would bo used upon those who were' fighting in tho cause of temperance. But they might be able to fight under better conditions than did the temperance party in Now Zealand. Referring to the single tax movement, he quoted figures showing the relative progress during the period between the years 1897 and 1903 of twelve towu.s in Now Zealand, where rating on the unimproved value of the land has been adopted, and 12 similarsized towns in the same colony where the old system of taxation hat! been adhered to. In the towns which continued to rate under tho old system, the increase in population was only four per cent., while in the towns which had adopted the system of taxing tho unimproved value of the laud, the increase amounted to 25 per cent. (Applause.) This could not "be called accidental. The town of Grey Lynn, which he represented in Parliament, and which had not been included in the towns selected for the purpose of making the comparison, had adopted the new system, and during the six years mentioned had actually increased 123£ per cent, in population. In defending the justice of the taxation of land values. Mr. Fowlds made reference to the fact that in New Zealand for the last 10 years the. land values had been increasing at the rate of about 2j millions per annum, created by the whole of the people of New Zealand, and handed over to a comparatively small section of the community, viz., tho landlords. He claimed that the land values, which were the product of the labour and expenditure of tho whole community, should Ik; collected and expended in the interests of the people who created them. He also pointed out that the eternal law was that when one man or class of men got without producing, some other man or class of men had to produce without getting, and that to establish social justice it was necessary to secure equal access to natural opportunities for all men, so that every man would get the full value of the product of his labour. Mr. Henderson Cobb, of Now Zealand, spoke briefly, and in the course of his remarks paid a high tribute to the work done by Mr. Fowlds in the cause of the temperance and single tax movements in New Zealand.