"PROGRESS AND POVERTY."

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8245, 10 August 1893, Page 2

"PROGRESS AND POVERTY."

Mr O'Began's Lecture at the Oddfellows' Hall.

There -was s good attendance, including many ladies, at the Oddfellows' Hall last night to hear Mr O'Began's interesting lecture on the above subject. Mr O'Began is a fluent and forcible speaker, and has the gift of placing his subject before his listeners in a manner which never onoe allow* their attention to lag. He commenced by referring to the poverty whiob. up to our day appears inseparable from material progress. To find the most piteous destitution we had to go to the moat opulent cities, where vice and beggary festered and individual fortunes grew to the most extravagant dimensions. The current explanation for this paradox wag the "struggle for existence" which had been popularised by Darwin and others. But, manifestly, this did not aoconnfc for all the phenomena since, as Mr George had shown, poverty was nowhere duo to scaroity of food, but to inequality in distribution. In all countries there was enough and to spare of all the good things of life to afford plenty to all, even to the poorest and lowliest, but from a oauoe whioh had been generally overlooked, a few got mora than sufficient while tbe many toiled on the brink of starvation. Unable to find the answer to the problem in the Darwinian or Malthusian theory Mr George had sought it in the laws which regulate the distribution of wealth. He showed that land and labour were the primary sources of all wealth, and thus capital was merely wealth devoted to production. It followed that capital was itself the result of labor, (Hear, hear)- IC labor ceased, capital' could not exist, and thus they aaw that, although labor was stripped of its just reward, ye< without it life on this earth conld not be sustained. The human race could not live without submitting to the universal decree, "By the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eai bread." (Cheers..) Now, as land wai necessary for the exertion of labor it inevit ably followed that those who held land ai private property wero enabled to levj tribute (or rent) for the use of it. It newly settled countries where populatiot was sparse the ownership of land conferred no undue advantage, because there wai always plenty of land to be had withou' rent, but as population inoreased, ren must enormously increase, and in due ttm< ail the land would become monopolised This narrowed the opportunities for labo and capital to employ themselves and thei wages and interest tended to fall to thi minimum. Rent would keep on rising am every increase in rent meant decrease*! wage for labor and deoreased interest for capital (Cheers.) This brought the lecturer to th question of morality of private landowner' ship. Throughout the world men had from the most primitive times, recognisei the soil as common property, and it seemei that private landownership had every wher been the outcome of war and conquest, thi conquerors always finding it easy to subju gate a people by confiscating their land " The history of every country in Europe/ says Partington, in his Knoyclopocdie " goes back to the time when the land wu common property." This had been ampl evidenced also by the_ woiksof De Laveleyi and Sir Henry Maine, whose researohe embraced pretty well the who'e globe (Cheers). Lost, however, it might be sail that one had to go to the barbarians fo examples, the lecturer next explained wha civilsation had to say, There were com people who were fond of going to the Bibl for arguments, agaiDst Henry George's pro posals. Some time ago an opponent of hi (Mr O'Began's), had asked him if he knei about the commandment " thou shalt no steal." He replied " yes," but asked hi questioner to turn up the Book of Levitiou and he would find this : " The land shal not bo sold for ever, for the land is Mine (Laughter and cheers). A a matter of fac tho Single Tax on land had been advocatsc by a school of French economists, beadei by Turgot and Queanay, prior to tho grea Revolution j and Mirabeau had described i as " an invention equal in utility to the die covery of printing." It had also been advo c&ted by Dr Chalmers the eminent Scotcl clergyman, and by Dr Nultr, the Eomai Oatholio Bishop of Meath, who called pri rate property in land the " twin sister o chattel slavery," and had further said tha any settlement of the land of a country tha would deny the humblest man of his shar in the common heritage would be an un boly resistance to the benevolent intentioi of his Creator. (Loud applause.) Herber Spencer, J. 8. Mill, Arthur Arnold Froude, and many other writers had a]<n roundly condmned private property in th surface of the earth. Landlordism reall; involved slavery, as the landless toiler could not be free when they lived only o; the aufirance of the lords of the soil (Oheers ) Coming to our own colony wi found landlordism already amongst ue For years past Sir George Grey had warnei ua against this ; and in foot as far back a 1844 a committee of the House of Common had advised the imposition of a land tax ii New Zealand. All this sound advice hac been ignored, and the result was that up wards of a fourth of the whole Colony wai owned by a few hundred men while 17,00( families were toiling on 300,0(10 acres. Thi borrowed millions had been spent in makin; roads and bridges, and this had enormously enhanced the value of large estates (Cheers) Instead, however, of this en hanced value being absorbed in taxation ii was appropriated by private landowner! who had no right to it whatever, and the public revenues were raised by taxes 01 improvements and by indirect taxes. Thest taxes ground the poor man's face, whilf the appropriation of the land deprived him of the chance of getting work. (Cheers.] Mr Ballance and his colleagues had car tainly initiated the thin edge of the wedge by exempting improvements, and a great deal of credit was due them. (Cheers] But » great deal remained to be done. Tax< ation of land values had been called •' con< flaeatton," but the real confiscation was to allow the present system of legalised plunder to exist. (Cheers.) The lecturer eonoluded by exhorting bis bearers to vote for further taxation of land values, and against tbe vicious system of taxing improvements. Unless this wer« done the time would noon come when all tho evils— the industrial tlavory and hopeless misery of older countries would bo upon ua. (Loud cheers ) Answering a question from one of the audience as to whether landlords could evade a land tax by increasing their rente, Mr O'Began showed this to be impojsible, as rent was fixed by competition. Landlords, themselvai saw this, and that was tbe reason why they raised the cry of confiscation. (Cheers.) Mr W. Montgomery proposed a hearty vote of thanks Jo Mr O'JJegon for his able and interesting lepture. Mr W. G. Baasett had mqoh pleasure in seconding tbe proposition. The Mayor put the motion, and it was carried by acclamation. The meeting closed with a vote of tbanks to the Mayor.