THE LABOUR PROBLEM.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1452, 29 May 1912, Page 6

THE LABOUR PROBLEM.

SOCIALISM AND SINGLE-TAX-A'FROMINENT FARMER'S VISW.?. Inference was mado by -Sir. J. Wlof tho Wellington Provin-cial-Executivo of tho Now Zealand Farmere' Union in his opening adduss at the annual conference, to-tho fact that the last census showed that the population pi the. towns exceeds that of the country districts. This, said llr. Wilson, was rather an- alarming position in a young country wliqso future is hound up 111 agriculture. 'The' towns unfortunately wero a happy hunting ground for all sorts of theorists, .whE£wished to upset tho present condition yi things and carry out theories which in the past had proved failures again and itgain. They were nearly all aimed at /placing further taxation on somebody other than themselves. The single-taxer claimed that ho would regenerate tho •country by imposing taxation on _ all farmers, liowover small their holdings, up ■to an amount equal to their unimproved ."value. Tho Socialist wished to benefit 'mankind by nationalising tho • means of production, distribution and exchange, and' tho Syndicalist, by a general strike, to bring Capital 011 its knees so that the syndicate could assume control of tho industry they were engaged in and sp ruin it. :/To the' various types of mind theso ■'"were attractive. If a young professional 'man's mind ran 011 tho first, speciously put.beforo him by trained speakers, and lie-had not much experience of country ! life,'; he might easily tall under the sway of 'the orator. The Socialist views were perhaps more attractive to the worker of thef towns, who was inclined to say "nothing will'save lis but Socialism/' though t'rofn what'he was to be saved from was not-stated; perhaps he did not know! Itwas'.often "better to be saved from the agitator or himself. The third was more attractive to the young blood who was spoiling for a fight, after tho style of tho orator who said he would break a tliousaud'agreements if it jnras to better labour. 'Some Points About Single Tax. There .were'some'points - 'about Nthe-single-tax which were worth pointing out, ; though there was a motion on the order ! paper in 'conncction with it. First, all land was to Be'taxed, however small "the value. No exemption'was to bo allowed. The origin of the exemption was no doubt to save the home from taxation, because 'it was a'-hecessity,'- Tho reason given was, . broadly,...that bccaitso of the action of tha 'State "in prosecuting public w'orks, that increased value had been given to the land. Railways had certainly been made by tho State,' but who made them pay? ,'i'ho produce of tho farmer made tliem possible at--all, and the only ultimate security for the.debt so..incurred was. the' land. The State had, however, parted with thCfee simple and money had passed as a consideration. Again, a very largo jiroportioh of'tlio lands of tlie'Dominion l -liad changed -hands, and the purchaser had given value to the seller for his goodwill. Further, most lands were mortgaged, so the mortgagee owned the land to tho extent of tho'money lent. Yet if iP. single;tax were imposed, the owner of the land, would be called upon .to pay a tax equivalent to 'what ; was ' termed the: -unimproved-value of the land or.a..rent equal to it. He would then bo, paying that rate lipon the purchase money already paid to the ■ State;'--and'-''oil"' the- ' amount of the goodwill he had also already paid to the seller who had gone away with it, and upon his mortgage which he owed to the lender, unless theso amounts, came in all to more than the unimproved value. .The-mortgagee ( would have his. security very much reduced, and, therofore-.ke would'only lend money to alesser amount, at. ; <i higher..rato-and. thus. , "the last.state" of;'-the' farmer would ■ ,be ■worse than the first;?' How any .snne mail could-;expect another to go on- work-. .ing .011 these conditions, passed one's.com-, .prehension. Furthermore, ho was offered as an equivalent freedom from Customs taxation.- -Was, it, asked- Sir.; Wilson, So certain, that-such co'uld'be an 'equivalent! 1 Figures could be made to prove anything, but in this case the smaller number, would bo required to find the money and tho larger have the spending of it. Had this ever been found to lead to economy? The Only Safeguard. The only safeguard there was for a nation to conduct its affairs was that everyone should pay something by way of taxation, so that it was in his interest that 'the spending of it should be scrutinised by all. Again, take the misnomer "unimproved value." Had anyone yet been able to say what it was? The valuer puts upon land an arbitrary value; not,:;gnide,d, by anything; but, put on.so that- it should be fairly even upon, adjoining lands of a like character. He then added, by l way of improvement, another sum altogether inadequate, and the net result was tlia-t much of his "unimproved valno" contained a value of a great deal of the improvements. 1 Mr. Wilson said he denied tho Tij>ht of the State to this amount to which the disciples of Henry George dogmatically said-it belonged.-■■ We had already seen that, the railways had been paid for by the freights on. farmers' produce, plus tho amount paid for by fares, which ultimately came out of his pocket. If we inquired what bad made the Dominion what it is, we would find it was not the State at all, it was tho inventor who made possible the steam engine, tho freezing process, etc. We were able by means provided by the inventor to milk our cows, shear our sheep, and cut our crops in. a way that a few years ago, if it had been suggested, would have been laughed to scorn. The inventor had'-partially Teaped his reward, but how . could it be said that the State had any 'Tight to the proceeds of his inven-. tion? Did the State build our freezing works', our dairy factories, our steamers which carry our frozen produce so well? No! These things were all created by privato enterprise, which was being repaid by tho success of the system. Did The settler not make his own roads, and thus improve the value of his land, and as a result his unimproved value .was raised and taxes paid all along by him on this account. Most of the unimproved value of the land had already been paid for by the land. Kvery year about two million was paid by way of rates, taxes, death duties, etc., and in a few years this would rapidly mount up. Jlr. Wilsr.n.said, he. had been able only to touch the fringe of the subject, and mustleavo it at that. What , they called the "unearned" increment, and demand for tho State was generally very "hard, earned" increment indeed. Tho Maori as Socialist. In New Zealand we shoaild be tho iast to admit that there was_ any reason to alter our-present economic, system, andsubstitute for it Socialism. Had wo not in our midst the most widespread Socialistic community in the world—the Maoris. "Whilst they lived their own life without the help of the pakeha, they lived, and lived only. Their standard of life was not what we should have envied ; the men fought and the women worked. The chief, by means of his "mana," his bodily strength, or his prowess in war, was 'paramount, yet everyone owned the land, and it could be used by each individual as he pleased. had no animal food, and they provided it in the shape of their enemies. They provided just enough to sustain life; sometimes they starved, sometimes they planted themselves on others who were more provident than themselves, and ate all their food for them. Whon the men were not fighting, fishing, or hunting they were talking. Mr. Wilson said he was not saying anything against tho Maoris. He was a distinct admirer of them, though not of their savage ways. They were a most delightful, able, nnd adaptable people, but they were Socialists. Could they compare with the AngloSaxon, whose virility seemed almost to have conquered the world, though it was now being disputed by the Eastern nations, and who could tell. whether., the pendulum might not in time swing' in that direction? Yet were we to pause and imitate them, and our men become lazier—for they would have no cause to fight unless for billets as inspectors or officials of some sort—tlie nation would lose its incentive, would sink lower and lower until it becamo a prey to some strong nation, jnst as the Incas did when thev were conquered without almost the eoniblanco of resistance, or the Chinese uiuier similar conditions whan tho Tartars conquered them, He could give them a long list of failures wherever Socialism was attempted, but refrained for want of time. Their Sooialist friends could • vet have an opportunity of testin» their theories by an extended visit Maori_ pa. A Word to the Syndicalist, For tho- Syndicalist .and. Ma-sabo.tage,

few in the country had anr liking. The recent strikes in i'rnnce in the rnihvays had been, an eye-'Opcner, nutl tlio wanton destruction. carvitMl out .showed what mob rulo *vould result in here. The means adopted wero those ot tho general strike; but it was comforting to think that where that had been attempted in the colonies it had failed, notably in Queensland. We .iu this dominion hnd been often threatened by it, but it had not been so resolutely resisted as ui the sister State. The AVaihi miners were, how*over, Again threatening us with it, a,nit we could only wait and see what tho outcome would be. Labour was indeed restivo and wondered, like (Jlive, "at its own moderation/' It knew that labout is wanted iu the Dominion, but resists even tho soiaU modicum, farmnr.s asked for in tho shape of Sedgwick boy.-?, and successive Ministers seemed alranl to frrant even tho small assistance the farmers asked for. All this while Labour had ft its command a pertectly lcitimato means of bettering itself, viz., c6-operation. It had succeeded elsewhere— ii-liy not here? Wlien co-opera-tion was suggested by means of sharing in profits. Labour objected, because, it thought that it might mean increased output, as if that were not in their own interests and that of the nation. I