MASSE(Y)S & THE CLASSES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 61, 30 July 1912, Page 8

MASSE(Y)S & THE CLASSES

PROFESSOR MILLS AT NEW PLYMOUTH. LAND AND LABOR. Professor W. T. Mills, national organiser to the United Labor Party of New Zealand, delivered an address to an audience of between 150 and 200 persons in the Good Templar Hall last evening, entitled ''The Masse(y)s and the Classes." The meeting was over a quarter of an hour late in commencing. Mr. H. Goodacre was in the chair, and briefly intro-

duced the speaker. At the outset Mr. Mills explained that in speaking on the subject of "The Massc(y)s and the Classes" with the word masses spelt with a "v," he would like to remark that no share of the meeting and no share of the work which lie was trying to do in the country had anything whatever to do with a personal attack on Mr. Massey, or anyone else. He was interested in certain great questions I which were of fundamental importance I to the people of New Zealand and. to all other countries. He believed that in the J discussion of the subject in New Zealand they would discover the necessity of the. reorganisation of the political forces of not only the Dominion but of all other countries on the globe. This was not on account of the personal affairs or failures on the part of the men who had been in places 01" political responsibility. He did not believe that Sir Joseph Ward and his party were turned out of office because of overwhelming sentiment against them, but rather on account of the fact that those within the ranks of the party could not agree among themselves. The party comprised two groups of men whose interests fell on opposite sides. The majority of the people had not voted for Mr. Massey and his party.. The trouble was, and the trouble would continue to be, that either or both of these parties were not able to express themselves as being on either side of any fundamental public question whatsoever. Those in the Liberal Party who had assumed that the progressive people were ! voting "the Liberal ticket ought to to- | member that quite a large number of the most progressive and active people in New Zealand voted for the Opposition because they had been growing discouraged. . They did not, however, vote for Mr. Massey because they favored his policy. It was under this very embarassing and trying set of circumstances that the new Government undertook to open up its career. Continuing, the Professor said he would undertake to show his audience that the same thing which had made it impossible for the Liberal Party to continue in ofiice was going to make it difficult and ultimately impossible for the new party to carry on. Nevertheless he believed that there would be a large number of other members of the Ward party who would go over to the Massey party, and that the latter party would be abie to carry on to the end of the current term of three years. The Government, however, would be able to do only those things which were of such a nature that the old party had already been doing piecemeal. A WORD FOR THE MASSEY PARTY. "I think," proceeded Mr. Mills, "that it is up to everyone in the Liberal Party, and the Labor Party as well, to support the new Government in every effort to do those things for thi> people of the Dominion which are possible. I think it will accomplish more in progressive measures than any other session of Par-

' liament in New Zealand has seen for a j very long time. I think that there are a large number of simple measures which | labor organisation are asking for which will be put through. I confidently look for certain amendments with regard 1 to military training, and the Arbitration Court, and -the adoption of proportional representation, all of which will have every reason for approval." Referring to proportional representation, the speaker said that if Mr. Massey's party adopted this measure it would temporarily injure t'ie Labor Party. Ultimately, however, it would give Labor power which would remove politics from the present control by l party absolutely. THINGS THE GOVERNMENT COULD NOT SOLVE. Getting down to his subject, the speaker said that the fact ithat the present Government would enact the ' measures he had outlined would not solve the great and serious problems of the land, which were fundamental in their character in regard to the industrial, commercial and «ducational life in New Zealand. The old party went out of office because it could not come to a conclusion touching all those matters of fundamental importance, and the same questions could not, and would not, be touched by the Massey party without leading themselves to the. division lobbies and defeat. Foremost among the .questions of fundamental importance i was that of the land. "It must," he' ejaculated, "be dealt with!" Throughout years and years of legislation Parliament had not been productive of any definite policy on the land question, and not until it adopted one would the land problem cease to be a problem. After a thousand years of legislation in Great Britain, instead of being solved the problem was to-day more complicated and intense than ever. New Zealand was a young country, which had started off with a clean slate, and behold! it had recreated the same old conditions and the same old problem of the Mother Country and the rest of the world over, This was the problem which would surely bring disaster on the present Govern- | ment. The speaker jocularly remarked that the party at present in power would doubtless be able to supply.some cooling drink and a change of pillows for the patient, but it had nothing that would remove the cancerous problem—the land question. j

THE OTHER PROBLEMS. In a forceful diction Mr. Mills went on to say that, as had been said in Parliament, there were other problems. For instance, what about the other monopolies? They must not single out the land question alone, and leave the others out. The land monopoly had at least (.lie excuse that it was attached to Now Zealand soil, but the same could not 'be said of the other monopolies. The tobacco, sugar, oil, steel and other mo-

nopolies had their headquarters in New York. The old Liberal party was unable

to deal with the question, not because they were bad men, but because any decision would iutve meant war within the ranks, and dissolution. The Massey party would find itself in the same position. The question of international monopoHes had been absolutely avoided by the Ward Government. In effect, they acted by consenting not to act. If the new Government did not divide, they lika r wise would not bo able to act, and if they did divide a hopeless split would ensue. Education was another question of fundamental importance. Indeed, he did not think t/iere was an institution ■of more serious importance to the workers than the school. The whole system, however, was crying out for radical fun-

damental reform. For one thing, the Liberal Government had not spentenough on education. " THOSE LYING ADVERTISEMENTS." Touching on another point, the speaker said that if New Zealand was going "to be worth while," and if it was ever going to have a population of any size, it would have to "call home those lying advertisements" in England, which brought men out to the Dominion only to find that the true position had been sadly misrepresented to them. They only stopped long enough in New Zealand to find out that they had been ; misled. As a result, they found that all the people who came to Aucklalnd last year from all the ends of the earth numbered only 31 more than the number which had deserted the place. It' was time to stop bringing men out to the Dominion by special representation. Why, the best boys, the brightest boys, the cleverest boys left the country. There was something radically wrong with a country whose own sons—the promising material —were deserting her. Continue the present land system a little longer, allow the international monopolies to continue, and leave unaltered the present school system (which was turning out boys without any qualifications than those of an unskilled worker) and New Zealand would become what Kentucky (in America) at present was a mere breeding-place for toilers who would find an occupation away from home, because of the limitations and lack of opportunities at home. Recently he met three men (immigrants) who were about to desert New Zealand, after having tried their luck at land ballots for three years. They were still landless. That was the reason why men were leaving the country. The speaker then went on to affirm that he did not object to a man owning his land. What he objected to was that the great body of the people did not own any land. ,B_v all means the man who used the land ought to own the land. It was the men who wantrd to use the men who used the land wiio were' responsible for the land problem. The evil lay in the private appropriation of the unimproved value of the land. Whatever a man put his own life into creating was as much his own as his own life. His party was up against the men who owned 1 the land but did not themselves work it. Land values were of two series—the values created 'by the men on the land, and the value created by people jnot on the land. A man was entitled , to the improvements he had himself effected, but not to the other value in the shape of the unimproved, which was created because a railway had been built close to it; 'because a bridge had 'been built near; because a stone road), a schoolhouse, and the like had been built near by, by the people as a whole. If the individual created value it was his. On the other hand, the value which the nation created belonged to the nation, and a law which permitted the private

appropriation of this wag permitting the majority to rob the few. There could not be any solution of the land problem except on these line-s. Dealing further with the question, the Professor sought to explain that any appropriation of the unimproved value, as put forward by his party, would not be made retrospective. It was not out to take vengeance on the wrongs of yesterday. Its object was to put an end to the evil, and to prevent a recurrence in the future. If his party legislated in the matter it would approach land-owners in thia manner: Tell us what you value your land at, including improvements and the unimproved value; price it, and we will make your record of value a part of your own title, and then in future give society whatever value it creates. That, continued the speaker, would put an end to all speculative values, and put an end to the problem for all time. In this manner no one would be robbed. It was the only solution. In fourteen years tho people had lost £100,000,000 of unimproved value, which had been privately appropriated by a very small minority. "Do you wonder," he exclaimed, "why the boys go away from home? Do you wonder there is trouble in New Zealand, even though the hours are short and the wage 3 high! . . . . If Mr. Massey touches the programme I am outlining now, his party will be as dead as the Liberal Party is now. His party is facing the same question; if it does not do it* it dies; if it does do it, it will die all the quicker." (Laughter.) The fact that toy a worker the United Labor Party meant every man who worked, be ho laborer, artisan, schoolteacher, civil engineer, railway servant, or college professor, and so on, was then fully explained by Professor Mills, after which he went on to point out that in every country on the. face of the earth the richer the land the poorer the people, and to point out the iniquity of a system which permitted absentee landlords to bleed a country. NEW ZEALAND'S "NEED PEOPLE AND MOKE PEOPLE. In characteristic, vein Mr. Mills dealt with the immigration question as follows: "The first thing New Zealand needs is another million people, and the thing she next needs is two million more. Inside of ten years we (his party) will double the population of the Dominion, and inside of a further five years double

it again. New Zealand stands in the Pacific, <a temptation to every inter ; national thief. You say it ia military training she needs to protect herself. I say no! Give us ten million people. Protect us against the international robbery of foreign monopolies; solve the land problem." At the conclusion of his address Mr. Mills was accorded a hearty vote of thanks.