TAXES AND THE FARMERS' UNION.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LVII, 24 May 1910, Page 5

TAXES AND THE FARMERS' UNION.

(To the Editor."*

Sir, — I notice in your ceport of the Taranaki Provincial Conference of the Farmers' Union a resolution was carried asking the five members, of Parliament representing Taranaki constituencies tc resist any further attempt that may be made to impose any further unfair tax on the already oyer-taxed farming community. Now, Sir, I would like to ask, What is considered an unfair tax? If it is a tax on improvements I am in sympathy with the resolution. But if it is a tax on the unearned Incremeait I am right against the resolution For I think a tax on the unimproved value (sufficient to keep the country going and relieve us or all other taxation) would be a boon to many struggling farmers in Taranaki. ' Many of us are already • aying a very heavy tax on the unimproved value of land in the -shape of a high rent to private landlords. Then we are paying taxes on top of that again through the Customs to keep the country going, and further enhance the value of the land, only to pay a still higher rent on the expiration of a very short lease. Then, again, it would stop speculation in land and bring it down to its productive value-, and farmers wanting a piece of land to farm and make a living, by actually farming it, would only have to pay for the improvements on the land, instead of having to pay a very large sum for the unimproved value as at present, the greater portion of which is put on by the community generally and the walk of science and invention. Such n tax doesn't suit that body called the Farmers' Union (but I think Landlords' Union would bo more appropriate). Why not try and introduce a measure to control tlie rents of both private and private-owned farm lands? Other unions control thofr rate of wages and hours of work to a certain degree, so I don't see anything to prevent farmers from controlling the rent of land. Or, perhaps, go a little further and control the aale price of it. I'ohink it could he done through the Arbitration Court. One is led to believe the Farmers' Union havo only the welfare of the farmers at heart, not the landlords and rack tenters. After all, it is tho man who is actually working the land that is tho farmer, whether freeholder, leaseholder, or share-milker. Thanking you for space. — I am, etc., TENANT FARMER.