The Timaru Herald WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2, 1909. SOME SOCIAL PROBLEMS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13919, 2 June 1909, Page 4

The Timaru Herald WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2, 1909. SOME SOCIAL PROBLEMS.

Mr Laurenson on Monday overling dealt at large with four groat evils to which the downfall of the great Roman Empire has been attributed—aggregation of land, aggregation of wealth, depopulation of the country through drift to the towns, and the decrease of birth-rate. He stated these evils, and pointed out that they exist to some extent —not to an alarm? ing extent—in New Zealand. To find remedies for them are the "social problems we have to solve." Mr Laurenson contented himself with stating the problems, without -dicating solutions. He left the to be thought out by his hearers. In the after discussion the aggregation of land was dealt with, and the remedy for this evil was suggested in land nationalisation. The StaS, he said, is repurchasing land at the rate of half a million sterling per annum, and in the. course of time the big estates will be got rid of. It goes without saying that estates so large as some of those mentioned by Mr Laurenson cannot bo cultivated to the best advantage .in the interests- of the community, and the proper test of occupation is satisfactory utilisation. 'ln regard to inequality in the distribution of wealth,there is one comment'of importance to be made on Mr Laurenson's statistics. When it is said that the wealth of New* Zealand.-is £332 per head of the population, the valuation is- chiefly made up of valuations, of fixed indivisable, inconsumable wealth—land. and improvements—-the means of producing consumable and divisable wealth. The inequality that really counts ,is in'the distribution of the annual production* arid this is not so . great as might be conclndect from the statistics. The effectual inequality is in the amounts consumed by different people. There are people who in the statistical re* turns livo quite economically,'and with! thousands a year of income spend little more- upon themselves than do others with only as many hundreds a year. The rest in one . sense is accumulated* for the owner's nominal benefit; in another sense it is distributed, to the immediate benefit of others, in the shape ,of investments of various kinds, usually investments of a' productive nature, for the nominal owner of the wealth, so applied will seek for applications of his spare wealth that possess that character; Aggregations of wealth may be merely nominal then. It- is the spendthrifts, the people who waste wealth on ostentatious display, and on selfish indulgence, that constitute the real evil; and the unfortunate thing is that the possession of large incomes is a great temptation to indulge in wasteful expenditure, but particularly among those who have not themselves worked for, but have inherited: such ihcomes. Wasteful expenditure, however, is by no means confined to people with, large incomes. In the after discussion the question of unemployment was raised, and this is the immediately pressing question. A tvpical extreme case was mentioned of a French polisher by trade, who could get no work at all here. There are many unemployed in Christchurch today. AMrR. L. Wilson has received in response to an advertisement over one hundred letters from men out of work, and he is " surprised that so many of them are skilled, tradesmen* only a sprinkling of general labourers replying." Mr Wilson has no remedy, Mr Laurenson offered none. Mr D. McLaren, Labour Member for a Wellington seat, as Mr Wilson is doing, aa the British Government proposes to do, is collecting tallies of unemployed. Aa if that will provide work for the workless. The French polisher is a typical case, as remarked above, and to concentrate attention upon him might lead'to some remedy being found. The French polisher is not wanted at all, but he is here. Other skilled artisans are not wanted all the year round. "What will meet the case of the French polisher should meet that of the others. His remedy is a return to first principles, the. production from Mother. Earth of materials for his own sustenance. This will not meet the immediate needs of the French polisher; but it indicates the direction in which effort should bo made for the avoidance of relief works and charity doles to able-bodied skillod artizans in future. The State must provide land, and the artisans must learn the Edenic art of gardening, the growth of. food for one's own consumption, of which agriculture, the growth of food for others' use, is an, extension. This seems to be the natural method of -

avoiding the disaster of the trades that do not afford constant employment. Ail artificial method is the employment insurance system, by which the artizan is compelled to save during periods of employment to tide over periods of unemployment for himself or for others. A combination of both systems should save the skilled artisan from periodic disasters, and the drift from the country to the town would be the less deplorable, because the drift would, so to speak, carry some of the country with it.