FARMERS' TAXATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 154, 2 July 1927, Page 11

FARMERS' TAXATION.

MINISTER ON LOCAL RATES. a terrible Burden. (By Telegraph. —Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Friday.

There are over 85,000 farmers on the Dominion's rural lands, and according to the Minister of Lands, the Hon. D. McLeod, over 50,000 of them pay neither land nor income tax owing to the exemption provisions in respect of mortgages approved by Parliament on several occasions. "Then it is not taxation which is killing the farmers?" queried Mr. W. Parry. The Minister replied that he admitted that taxation could have its effect, and local taxation was seriously burdening the farmer. Possibly through carelessness in the first place, plus prosperity, they had not voiced their protest at the ballot box when loans were carried, so that loan after loan was raised, and local taxation had become a terrible burden in many districts, amounting almost to a rent. He had taken out a comparison when in New South Wales, where he found that settlers, including Federal and State tax, would pay £9 in taxation—while similar settlers in New Zealand would be free. These settlers were liable to land tax and income tax. Mr. McLeod added he could fairly claim, on behalf of his party, that they had tried to shift part of the load off the country settlers, and tiie lending of money at low rates of interest which the general community helped to carry was one way of helping farmers through their difficulties.