FARMERS AND THE SINGLE TAX.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7379, 4 February 1902, Page 2

FARMERS AND THE SINGLE TAX.

The Patea West branch of the Farmers' Union resolved : That the executive be asked to protest wherever possible against the action of the Single Tax League in endeavouring to get all the burden of taxation placed on the land.

MILK TEST.

At the meeting of the Patea branch of the Farmers' Union, notice of potion was given: That the executive bo requested to ascertain the opinion of branches with regard to approaching the Government for the purpose of getting independent officials appointed to conduct the milk testing operations in dairy factories, and that the executives of other provinces be asked for an expression of opinion on the proposal.

THE " WHITE SLAVE " QUESTION.

Interviewed at Wellington by a N.Z. Times reporter, Mr Richard Cock, of New Plymouth, gave an emphatic denial to statements which have been made that dairy farmers in Taranaki are in the habit of making "white slaves " of their young children. This allegation has been repeated to him by persons in Wellington for whom he has great respect, and he wishes to publicly state that it is not well-founded.

" The children who go to school are not slaves at all. The heavy milking, as a general rule, is done by the young men and women who have left school. The children of school age have plenty of time for play. "You can see them at it before and after school. I visit so many of the farms, and am travelling so much about the" district, that I have an opportunity of noticing these things, and I can say that the children of Taranaki are as happy, as healthy, aud as alert and intelligent as those of any part of the colony. "Of course I have seen cases in which people are inclined to • graft ' hard to get a big cheque. There are families that are milking on the halfprofits system. Under this system, a family takes half of the receipts from the farm, which belongs, say, to the Crown Dairy Company. The family does not provide anything. It does not have to find any capital. Everything in that way is provided by the company. Well, I knew of a case in which a mother and her three daughters drew a cheque amounting to J670 for last month's milk. That family was milking 116 cows. It shows what a family can do. In this case, a son was soon to come home to help in the milking. Independent of the milk money, these people receive half of the money derived from the sale of pigs and calves during the year.