SPEECH BY MR. MASSEY

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1116, 2 May 1911, Page 6

SPEECH BY MR. MASSEY

ADVICE TO FARMERS. THE QUESTION OF VALUATIONS. NEED FOE VIGILANCE. (By Telegraph,—Special Correspondents Auckland, May 1. At the annual dinner of the Farmers' Union branch at Clevedou on Saturday evening, Mr. W. F. Massey, Leader of the Opposition, indicted-to tho settlers present somo'directions in which watchfulness, union, and solidarity were necessary for tho safeguarding of tho farmers' interests. The question of the valuations, ho said, had recently been agitating tho minds ol the farmers in the Auckland district. The theory was that improvements " were exempted from taxation, but that was only theory, because tho more a farmer improved his land tho higher its "unimproved value" went. There was not the exemption of improvements there ought to be. Assessors deducted from the capital value an imaginary value for improvements, leaving as the unimproved value an amount which was not the real unimproved value at all, but simply an imaginary value on which the farmer was taxed for improvements. That subject ot valuation was ono which deserved tho attention of every farmers' organisation throughout the length and ; breadth of the country. Years ago there was a provision in the law by which the farmer, if not satisfied with the valuation, could call on the Government to take the property at its own valuation, plus ten per cent. That provision had been ■repealed. He did not trouble about the ten per cent, addition, but h<S considered - they should have a provision made by which tho State would be prepared to . talco tho laild at the sum at which it was valued for taxation. There Woiild not then bo tho dissatisfaction with the : valuations that had existed for somo time prist. Another point tho speaker drew attention to was that money lent'on laud security was immediately taxed to the extent of <£15 to on every .£SOO or £600. There was lio such tax on money lent to persons engaged in industrial enterprises. Then; again, the State liad created for itself a monopoly of the water power of the country, and if a local body desired to, utilise the power of a stream, say, of the Wairoa River, it could not do so. Tho speaker stated that tho Farmers' Union not only did not assist and advise members of Parliament, but at times hindered them. Ho quoted an instance of an amendment proposed last session by him, when the House was dealing with Native land. When he expressed the opinion that settlers going on rural land should bo given security of. tenure by. having tho right to purchase tho freehold . whenever, they., could accumulate sufficient capital, a prominent member of tho Farmers' Union then expressed the opinion that tho speaker had moved the amendment with the solo object of putting Government members in a difficulty. As a matter of .fact, he believed in .tho amendment: with his whole heart and soul. Again, in the Tariff Act of 1907, thero was tho extraordinary provision that certain articles printed in italics ill tho tariff list should be dutiable or not, according to the "say-so" of the Minister of Customs. The effect of the provision had been the unfair imposition' of duties on many articles. Mr. Massey expressed tho opinion that the Loans to Local Bodies Act of 1886, which had been repealed, should bo' reenacted, as it was a most useful Act iu tho way of enabling local bodies to get money cheaply, and to repay it in fortyono years. As showing the necessity for extreme ■vigilance on the part of the union, lie quoted the case of a provision which hi" appeared in tho last Land Act, providing that any person owning 333 acres could not acquire more by sale, lease, or occupation, under penalty of a fino not exceeding <£500, or five years' imprisonment. Such a landowner, were he to lease an adjoining crop of turnips on ■which to feed'his stock, would be subjcct under that provision to jive years in gaol. The provision was knocked out of the Bill, but still it was : in a. Bill introduced by the-Primo Minister in his .capacity of Minister for -Lands, and showed how carefully farmers and farmers' unions should scrutinise tho proposed legislation of tho country.