Evening Post. MONDAY, MAY 23, 1910. FARMERS' UNION CONFERENCE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 119, 23 May 1910, Page 6

Evening Post. MONDAY, MAY 23, 1910. FARMERS' UNION CONFERENCE.

The order paper of the Wellington Provincial Conference of the Farmers' Union which meets at Marton to-morrow is of the usual ample proportions. Apart from five matters which are to be taken in committee, there are no less than forty-seven items in the list. There is, of course, a considerable amount of overlapping. When different motions are submitted by different branches of the union upon the same subject, they all figure upon the same or3er paper, though in some cases the motions are so closely alike or £o diametrically opposed that one debate and even one division may suffice to dispose of several. Judged by the number of motions submitted, land taxation is the subject which is most keenly interesting the farmers of this district at the present time, and the administration of the Noxious Weeds Act comes next. Under the head of land taxation six motions are submitted by eight different branches, while with regard to noxious weeds five branches submit a motion each. The differences of opinion regarding the taxation of land are remarkable. The-Tenui Branch of the union submits the sweeping proposition : "That all taxation, Government and local, be collected* on tho capital value only." The Taranaki Executive proposes that the taxation of land should be "on the annual value with the same exemptions as money invested in other industries, the annual value to be five per cent, of the capital value. "The earning capacity of land, extending over a term of years" is the basis suggested by the Marton Branch ; while the other remits declare in more or less uncompromising terms for the maintenance of the existing system. The general principles of that system are ?o strongly supported by public opinion that it will surprise most people to find that it is seriously proposed to challenge them. But though the reactionary proposals to be submitted to the Marton Conference cannot pos-sibly be accepted by the <ountr\. if is jut-i »6 well to realise what lias prompted thflffl*,

The majority of those who are advo- | eating the substitution of tk» capital value or the annual value for the unimproved value as the basis of taxation probably do not dispute the abstract justice of the two propositions which •are tho foundations of th© present system, viz., that a tax upon improvements is a tax upon industry, and that a tax upon industry should as far as possible be avoided. It is not th© theoretical just-ice but the practical opjeration. of the system of taxing the unimproved value of land that is challenged, and this- is sufficiently apparent on the face of the order paper of the conference. Thus, the reason given by th© Taxanaki Executive for a change is that "the .pi-esent system of valuing land for taxation purposes has proved a complete failure, owing to the impossibility of accurately separating the improved from the unimproved value." There is no doubt that the task of discrimination is one of immense difficulty, and that it has frequently been, discharged, especially in the country districts, in a manner that gives tbe owner who has spent large sums on improvements just cause for complaint. If ease- and certainty of computatioa were the criterion, the capital value would certainly be- the best basis of taxation. It is the most easily computed, because it is the one element for which the operations of the market supply a direct test. The unimproved value is actually the last or residuary element in the problem, being an-ived at by deducting from the capital value the value of all unexhausted improvements. The line between exhausted or positively wasteful expenditure and the abiding results of wise expenditure is so shadowy and so shifting, that thedetermination of it 'leads to far more than the normal conflict of expert opinion ; and it is only according to human nature that the- valuers for th© Government — who, despite the right of tho landowner to call evidence, are practically the arbiters of the positionshould often give the benefit of tho large margin of doubt to the Taxing Department. But the energies of theFanners' Union would be much more profitably devoted to improving the status of the valuers and the accuracy of the valuations than to demanding a fiscal revolution which the public will never tolerate. A better answer could not be given to this demand than the first part of the motion which is to bo submitted to the conference by the Eongotea and the Marton branches of the union. "That while farmers in general disapprove of the manner in which land is valued for taxes,, chiefly because the unimproved value is generally too high and th© improvements too low, it will not improve matters by taxing buildings and improvements as well as land." With regard to the noxious weeds problem, it is gratifying to find that I the members of the union seem to be looking not to the relaxing but to the tightening of the administration as the true remedy. In particular the Crown is to be asked to apply to its own estates the same prescription that it has devised for those of private owners. The Wanganui branch considers that the Government should be requested by the conference to keep Crown land free from the noxious weeds included in the first schedule to the Noxious Weeds Act; and it points out the hardship inflicted upon the occupiers of adjoining lands by the miles of Crown land along the Main Trunk line and elsewhere which are at present given over to blackberry and Californian thistle. It is impossible to suppose that the conference, or any other assembly of reasonable men, can hesitate as to the justice of this request. There is the same kind of irresistible logic about the desire of the Pahautanui branch of the union to see the Crown Suits Act so amended that in respect of its responsibility for injury to persons or property the State should be brought into line with other traders, so far as its trading operations are concerned. We have left ourselves no space to 'deal with other interesting points in the programme, but shall take the opportunity of dealing with them after they have been considered by the conference.