THE FARMER PAYS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 77, 28 September 1938, Page 5

THE FARMER PAYS

DECADENT POLICY

POVERTY BY TAXATION

; The "Hampshire Observer," Winchester, publishes a letter from Mr. C. T. Allingham, of Taumarunui, who follows other correspondents in discussions about farm wages.

In the first place, Mr. Allingham points out that wages amounts can only be comparisons. If one gets 9d and his loaf costs 9d, another gets Is and his loaf costs Is, there is no material difference between the two. Some farmers keep hunters and cars for the same reason that people in other professions keep racehorses, dogs, etc. Should farmers alone be deprived of such things? "If farmers in England still are as I knew them, there are at least as many poor in comparison lo rich as there are in other occupations. The sentiment of home keeps them there, to the extraordinary benefit of the country."

"Here in New Zealand (he writes) the standard rate of pay for a navvy is £4 for 40 hours. He usually gets nearer £5. A farm worker on the other hand is awarded £3 for 60 to 70 hours of higher skilled work. When our Minister of Labour was asked the reason for the difference he stated, 'Farmers can pay more if they wish.' There are plenty of farmers in the meantime whose incomes are less than £3, who are compelled to pay taxes to keep navvies on relief work at standard rates, or on sustenance in good houses of their own, and owning cars on tram or bus routes, or almost adjoining railway stations.

"The result is women and children in the cow shed, farmers walking off, scarcity of farm labour, more taxes, higher cost of living, higher wages still, and so on, and this is a country supposed to be aiming at populating its open spaces. The trouble of overburdening with revenue is that out of approximately every shilling paid out 6d goes for upkeep of bureaus, staffs, etc. Thus half the shilling which might have been sensibly spent by the small business man is cancelled, leaving the honest man worse off than before. A country that neglects its agriculture is a decadent country.

" 'Poor farmers, poor country; rich farmers, rich country.' That is providing the farmer gets rich by dull and management, and not underpaid labour. If a farmer is rich by inheritance he would soon lose his wealth if he neglects too much. I would like to conclude by asking 'Who else has a better right to good houses and cars than farmers and farm workers, who really are contemporaneous farmers?' "