EXPLOITATION ECONOMICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17326, 25 November 1919, Page 5

EXPLOITATION ECONOMICS.

WHO'S WELFARE. The New Zealand Welfare League had become alarmed and angry at the Hon.'. George Fowlds' revelation to the people! of New Zealand of the magnitude of the! community-created land value fund which; has been appropriated by the landowners! of New Zealand during recent years. IB does not question the correctness of Mr. Fowlds' figures, but tries to camouflage) their seriousness and significance by somci platitudes about "money value" and! "links" and "feet," and winds up a. paragraph by sententiously expressing its surprise "how few . people can consistently reason in this way where economics measures are concerned."' The writers for the Welfare League have> never displayed in their writings any profound knowledge of economic science, but) it must be admitted they have displayed! considerable literary ability in their efforts) to make the worse appear the better cause. The League writer points out that the* price of "food, rent, fuel and light combined" has l-sen by 31 per cent, in 4£ years, while the value of land has only increased by 22 per cent. Pray, Mr. Wel-> fare, who gets the major portion of the increased price of "food, rent, fuel.and light?" Durnsr the last five years the quantity of produce exported from New Zealand has not materially increased, indeed many items have decreased, but the money price received has increased by over £46 000,000. Add to that amount the millions of pounds of produce still in the stores of New Zealand, the many millions more which have b<">n pa ; d to the producers by the consumers of New Zealand, and then add the further £340 000 of the taxpayers' money voted as a butter bonus last sess'on, and' surelv the Welfare Leacrue m'pht' admit franklv that its friends have done verv we'l financially out of the war, without 6t'"ok ; so tenaciously to that additional £47.696,750 of land value which hasaccrued to them during the war period. If the Welfare League article means anything it intends to convey the. impression that land values have only increased because of changing money values, or in its artistic phrase because we are now measuring in links instead of in feet. What about the increase of £128.562 224 wVch took place between 1897 and 1913? Was that also caused by a change in money values? Many people have been misled bv the specious, pious talk of the Welfare League. Mr. Fowlds has done a good : service to the community by drawing it 1 out into the open in its' true colours, as , the friend of land monopoly as well as' the enemy of organised Labour.