ANOTHER TAX FOR FARMERS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22445, 5 July 1938, Page 16

ANOTHER TAX FOR FARMERS

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir, —The audacity of the Labour Government is simply amazing. Is it ■ not underestimating the intelligence of the community, the farmers in particular? In spite of protests against .increased costs showered upon the Government from all parts of the Dominion, Mr Savage now coolly informs the farmers that he is going to impose another tax. A further 35 inspectors, making 77 in Ml. are to be appointed. (10 per cent, of the costs to be charged to the farmers directly and 40 per cent, indirectly. We are rapidly approaching the time, If we have not already

re£ched it, when civil servants will outnumber the producers. Here are more inspectors paid for by the farmers, but controlled by the Government. I am convinced that in proportion to the population in this Dominion we have more inspectors than any other part of the world; and still they come. The farmers should remember that once a tax is imposed it is never removed in spite of promises to the contrary to wit, among others, the sales tax. I think the farmers will appreciate the significance of this latest move, their further control by the State, and the appointment of men to sinecures who frequently know less of the job than the farmers they presume to instruct. ' Mr Savage is. as usual, very plausible, but altogether unconvincing. The number of applicants, 400, indicates how much more attractive is the position of an inspector than that of a producer. It would be interesting to learn how many of the applicants have failed in other directions. —Yours, etc., R. B. DALLEY. July 4, 1938.