SOCIAL PROBLEMS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13918, 1 June 1909, Page 3

SOCIAL PROBLEMS.

ADDRESS I5iT MR LAURENSON,

Mr G. Laurenson, M.P. for Lyttelton, gave an address in the Technical School last evening, under the auspices of the Literary and Debating Society, his subject being " Some Social Problems we have to Solve. 1 '

The Mayor, who as patron of the society, presided, gave Mr Jjaurens., i a cordial welcome to Timaru, and pleasantly introduced him to the audience. He congratulated the society upon the excellent work it had been able to do during its yet brief existence.

Mr Laurenson wins well received by the audience (numbering between sixty and seventy). He spoke first of the value of literary and debating societies, from his own experience, quoting the case of a society in Christchurch, from which graduated half-a-dozen members of the Legislature. They were of different shades in politics. That was all right. It did not matter that a friend differed from one in politics; the regrettable tiling was to meet a man who was indifferent to politics. Proceeding to his subjects, Mr Laurenson said that as a young man he used to regret that be did not live in some past time, say in "the spacious times of Queen Elizabeth," when "history was being made." As a matter of fact, he saw now never was history made so rapidly or so greatly as it was to-day. Man. he saia it reverently—was more and more becoming consciously a . fellow-worker witb God in the evolution of human life on the earth. He reminded his hearers of the marvellous progress .in mechanical and electrical appliances during the last 50 and still more in the last 25 years; and then drew attention to the great advance of the civilised nations in the vanquishing of the great bogeys of past ages —war, noisome beasts, pestilence and famine. The wars of the great nations during the last sixty years aggregated only five years, whil in the last sixty years of the 18th, century the great wars aggregated thirty years and further back they occupied more time. He looked forward with hope and witb expectation to the time when war would be no more. Mr Laurenson then quoted a passage of two from "Pepy's Diary" to show how great bad been the change in public opinions towards crimes and executions. He then spoke of the four great causes of the fall of the Roman - Empire—aggregation of land, aggregation of wealth, depopulation of the country and drift to the towns, and the horror of having children and weakening of family ties. These symptoms of decay were visible in the British Empire to-day, and also in New Zealand, young as it was, there was a tendency in their direction. He quoted official statistics to show that the evil of large holdings had a strong footing in this country, and the returns, for income tax and for death duties, showed an injurious inequality in the distribution of wealth. The average wealth of New Zealanders was put at £2OIO per family of sis'. How many families in Timaru have that share? In the two vears. i 905-06. 11,000 adults died in New Zealand, 7000 of whom left nothing, 4000 left nine millions, but half the 4000 left onlv £lßl each, and about 125 left speaking, half the wealth in' New Zealand is owned by 1 per cent, of the population; as if, dividing a pound amongst a hundred people, one got 10s, 49 got 9s, and 50 got Is. If it was said that the wealth was "good for those who got it," he denied that; and mentioned several considerations in support of the denial. Riches enervated the families possessing it, and one of the duties of an advanced democracy was to prevent that by securing a more equitable distribution. Mr Laurenson dealt with the evil of large holdings in a somewhat similar i manner, and incidentally stated that 23 people own one-twelfth of Canterbury, where there are more large estates than in any other province—26 out of 63 in New Zealand over £50,000 in value. Dealing next with the symptom of decay in declining birthrate, he quoted the returns, showing a decline from 37.32 per 1000 in 1882 to 27 in 1907, which meant 10,000 less children born in the latter year than there would have been at the earlier rate. Physiologically this was a great' evil for both mothers and children. The fewer the children in a family the more they were coddled and spoiled. The depopulation of the country and the aggregation of people in the towns was another of the old Roman evils reappearing here. - The population statistics showed that whim the country districts of South Canterbury iiad gained 1400 in fifteen years, tiTe towns had gained nearly 700U, and the ratio of town to country .population in Canterbury had grown from 76 per cent, to 92A- per cent. He had compared the attendance at some of the country schools of South Canterbury, and he gave attendances at six of them for ■ 900 and 1906, showing a decrease from 312 to 226. It was the duty of the Legislature to try to correct all these evils. In a fine peroration Mr Laurenson dwelt upon the great work yet to be done by wise statesmanslnp, and upon the encouragement of hope that much might be achieved by steady effort, and by degrees, to make the future of the race happier than its present, as the present was happier cl.an its past.

Questions were invited, and in reply to these., Mr Laurensou said his remedy for aggregation of land would be taxation of unused land over £SOOO, in value. —It was ridiculous for anyone to talk against socialism in this country ; with its railways, roads and streets, post and telegraph, land for settlement, advances to settlers, life insurance, water supply and street lighting, all supplied on socialistic principles. —The land for settlement system had degenerated, from a systci'i of getting men on the land, and getting half-bred squatters on the hind. The least capital a man wanted to get a lot at Culverden was £BOO. That needed altering., He would work in the direction of getting men of small means on the land, and he ex r l>eetod Mr Craigie to help him. —Mr Fowlds was not to be blamed for keeping his single tax ideas in the back<r7und: if he did not it would mean political suicide. It was something t.) have a Minister ready to go as far in that direction as public opinion .v mid let him. : A discussion took place on the question of the unemployed, and the unempfovable (a French polisher immigrant being specially mentioned). Mr 1. \Va"stafF described the case of a man who had been given misleading information at the Agent-General's Office, and Mr Laureuson explained that that was probably a mistake, and that he must have got his information at a shipping agent's who happened to be in the same building. Air Ensoni moved a vote of thanks for a political address on philosophical linos, so different from the addresses delivered at election times. Mr Patterson seconded, and the vote was carried by applause and suitably acknowledged. _