Citizens Say-

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 796, 17 October 1929, Page 8

Citizens Say -

(To the Editor.)

“REMEMBRANCE HILL” Sir,— May I ask by whose authority has the eminence, upon which our so-calleci Memorial Museum has been built, been dubbed Observatory Hill. Of all the bland, unpoetic misnomers this surely is the limit. Where, I beseech you tell me, is the “observatory” ? Observatory Hill—forsooth! What have observatories to do with cenotaphs and sacrificed life? Let us at deast approach our Cenotaph not by way of bald, inappropriate “Observatory Hill,” but by the sacred way of “The Hill of Memories,” or “Remembrance Hill.” HOMAGE. AMATEUR ATHLETICS Why are the citizens of Auckland so apathetic where amateur athletics are concerned? Last Saturday afternoon, the secondary schools of Auckland held their second annual athletic championships and only two or three hundred of the general public of this city were interested enough to be present. The weather was perfect and so no excuse can be made in that respect. Some of the finest, if not the very best, of Auckland’s younger athletes were seen in action. The programme was run off excellently; the races provided some exciting finishes and the times compared very favourably with those of the other secondary schools of our Empire. Yet only a handful of the citizens of Auckland was present. How can amateur athletics thrive in Auckland without public support? So bad have things become that Auckland can afford to send only two or three athletes each year to represent her at the Hew Zealand championships. Yet I am certain that Auckland has the cream of the younger athletes of our Dominion if only they can be developed and trained. This cannot bo done unless we have public support which has been sadly lacking during the past few years. I appeal to the citizens of Auckland to take a more lively interest in this manly sport and to lift athletics in Auckland to tile high standard which it attained in the years before tile war. ENTHUSIAST. THE HARBOUR BRIDGE Sir, — As one of the general public who has sp ent a long lifetime in our beautiful city; seen it grow from an insignificant raw Colonial port to its present population of nearly a quarter of a million; who once heard* Sir George Grey say with pride: "Here we have now sir, a city of - inhabitants” • wno has no vested or little property interests to serve, but only an intense love and pride in our beautiful Auckland, I should like to say, hoping to

offend none, that nothing woulet give an old inhabitant like myself more gratification than to see both sides of the Waitemata linked by a bridge. In my wanderings up and down the province I am always struck with the large unpeopled areas on the North Shore, mainly occupied by fruit and strawberry farms and Chinese market guldens. which, of course, testify to the fertility of the land, at any rate. The fine park-like scenery of the hinterland I consider is unsurpassed in the Dominion and is unequalled for residential sites. While writing, would you allow me to say, sir, that I thoroughly agree with your recent able leader on the personnel of the Commission set up by the Government? It is unthinkable to omit, say, a town-planning expert, an ablo accountant and also a prominent Auckland business man, the latter one who has been to the forefront in the great progress made in the last 20 years. In this connection I should hope to see all politics put on one side. As nothing can keep back, this great project we should avail ourselves of the best brains procurable. Everywhere X hear the bridge discussed with enthusiasm and hopes for its speedy erection uttered, very especially, I notice, by the younger generation, who all seem to own motor-cars. A bugbear I see repeatedly brought up is its cost and mention of the anticipated rate entailed. These can be proved to be quite unauthorised fears, as I understand the structure will be paid for by a toll, which no one who pays the present ferry toll can object to, and which means that the people who use the bridge will pay for the bridge. A.P.H. THE REMEDY | Sir,— | The committee appointed to report ! 2 n ,., tlle cauSt> of unemployment has deliberated and has brought forth six causes without even touching upon the j one and only “basic” cause. Seasonal i fluctuations in the demand for labour; displacement of labour by the introduction of improved appliances and machinery, and by industrial changes such as the use of oil for coal, and the i harnessing of water-power for the manufacture of electricity, cover practically all the committee can suggest, except “general depression of trade.”’ Tins latter might just as well have been expressed by saying that unemployment was due to lack of work! Tr.e basic cause of the evil under discussion is as plain as if it were written in letters of fire on the clouds. Land is the source of all employment, and obstacles placed between labour on the one hand and natural opportunities (land.t on the other hand, is the fundamental cause we seek. All other socalled causes rest on tills, and would disappear if, and when, we remove the obstacles which shut out workless men from the provision God has made for sustenance of mankind. So much j for theory. Now' let practical men

open their eyes and they will see, all over New Zealand, that there is land to which “attaches a value apart from improvements” lying idle, or inadequately used. It is in the towns as well as in the country, in small blocks as well as in large. The fact that it has a value shows that it is wanted by labour, the value (if it is an economic value) is the measure of the demand, and the fact that it is not used proves, as completely as Euclid proved any of his propositions, that obstacles are standing in the way. Supertaxes on “large” estates will not cure . (his, because the evil is not confined to large estates. In the aggregate j there are far more land -speculators among the ranks of the small men than of the large, and so the remedy must be an all-embracing and fundamental one. All the best land of the Dominion is privately owned, yet with a population still under 1,500,000, it stands to reason, even if it were not 7>atent to the physical vision, that all this land cannot be in “full” use. Our social system gives a pressing invitation to all users of land to take up more than they are able, or intend, to use and to hold the balance “for a riseLegislation that will make it unprofit- ! able to adopt such a “dog in th e , manger” policy will cure unemployment, make more jobs than job-seekers, and under such conditions ‘seasonal fluctuations will cease to trouble. Mon , will change their occupations as oas*»as they now change their coats. “General depression in trade” will be J 1 0”" existent for, by the opening up of tn source of all wealth and employment to all people on equal terms, no one v 1 lack work. Depression in trade is n I a cause but an effect—the effect o • idleness. It is said there is no Jl°^L. I road for the solution of the problem. that is not so. The is j be found in the collection by the Sta j (for community purposes) of nomic rent” of the country, and ■ total abolition of every description taxation. Labourers will then obt 1 the full product of their labour, ti diminished by tax, and will obtain ! whether they work for themselves for employers. In the latter c ‘ wages will remain at the highest tc nomic figure, because the obstacles ‘ the direct application of labour to i will be removed and “alternative J ployment will provide the “open to opportunity,” against any atjcrnP ; exploitation of labour by “capital l