“FLEECING THE FARMER”

Gisborne Times, Volume LXX, Issue 11195, 2 May 1930, Page 5

“FLEECING THE FARMER”

MR EUSTACE LANE ATTACKS TAXING SYSTEM. IMPROVEMENTS TO LAND LEAD TO HIGHER TAXES. Mi-. Eustace Lane has given the following notices of motion lor tho forthcoming annual meeting of the Wairoa branch of the Now Zealand Farmers’ Union;— “That the practice in New Zealand of persuading rnon to take up and improve land constitutes a fraudulent practice of confidence trickery, in that by hi.s genius, by his experience, with his hard work and capital, having made "two blades of grass grow where cue grew hoi ore. he is told that the increased value ol the land constitutes a, community-created fund and is taken from him in the form .of taxation , on unimproved values:" “That the term " unimproved value’ as applicable to rural land is so indefinite and variable as to ho mythical and impracticable of application for. taxation purposes and that it he abolished and Income Tax he substituted for Land Tax.” “That it" any man, Maori or pakeha, is not making sufficient and proper use of his land, or is allowing noxious weeds to spread and contaminate other lands, the State shall have the right to take that land at the price indicated hv the. value produced on which 1 1 ]come Tax is paid.

Wlien speaking- to the Palmerston North Luncheon Club on Karly Colonisation of New Zealand, Judge Gilfedder said that he considered that the present day Maori sects who were opposing the clauses of the Treaty of iWaxtangi m order to have the Maori restored xn his rights over various lands, were rather" late in asking for compensation. The treatv had lioen hawked from one end of the country to the other some 80 years ago and most chiefs had appended their names. For the- first time in the history of any political party in New Zealand a Maori woman went to the Labor Conference at Easter as a (Telegate. Mrs. Eewa Bennett,, ol Parnell, was appointed to represent the Point Chevalier branch, and she may he accepted by the party as the official candidate at the next election for the Northern Maori electorate. She. iis an active .member of tli o Auckland Women’s branch, and has already proved herself an enthusiastic worker. , Honoring the name of the late Sir George Clifford the doyen, ot the New Zealand turf, the committee of .the Manawatu Pacing Club has decided to perpetuate his memory. It has resolved to designate the principal flat race on the first, day of the forthcoming winter meeting the Clifford Handicap, in order to commemorate the life-long services of the late president of the Pacing Conference.