THE WORK OF THE FARMER.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXVI, Issue 51, 7 December 1909, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE WORK OF THE FARMER.

GROUNDWORK OF PROSPERITY

An interesting speech was delivered in tiie House "of the other night when the Loan Bill was under discussion by Mr Baume, as representing a city constituency (Auckland East), who said it could not be denied that the work of the farmer was the groundwork of the prosperity of the whole community. The working man depended entirely for his prosperity on the work and prosperity of the farmer. The fanner could live without the lawyer, without the shopkeeper, and without many of the avocations carried on in town,,but not one of these could live without the farmer. The primary industry in the world must always be that of the man who made two blades of grass to grow where only one blade grew before.

Owing to the extension of the functions of the State (he continued) and the fact that Parliament was becoming more and more, a "glorified board ol works" it was becoming impossible for members adequately to discuss the expenditure they had to pass. "What is the 'good," asked Mr Baume, "of having control over expenditure which you know nothing about and can never understand ? What is the good of having control of a vote when you have to pass that vote and can't help yourselves? What is the good of having control over public money when you are told by the Prime Minister, and I have 110 doubt rightly told, that the million vote is necessary? How are you going to prove that it is not? He was a member of the Government side because lie believed that on the whole the Government's legislation had been beneficial. Sir Joseph Ward said that a loan was neeecsarv. He did not know what jt was for, but because the Prime Minister said it was necessary, and because lie thought the balance of good was on that side, he voted with the Prime Minister when it came to a division. That was the position with the other members on the Government side.

Speaking on the question of land taxation, Mr Baume caid that if many more threats were made such -as bad come from individual members of : the,, House in the way of increasing the burdens on especially the smaller landowners, it would increa.se the nervousness which was felt by a great number of them already. "They are frightened, as they were frightened before, by the of some of the members—on this side of the House more especially—who have advocated revaluation of leaseholds, and measures by which .some portion, at any rate, of the earnings which really belong to the landowners shall be talce/i away from them." He was a thorough believer in the betterment principle, and he would be very glad to see something in that direction, advocated by the Government.