UNITED LABOUR PARTY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 531, 8 January 1913, Page 6

UNITED LABOUR PARTY.

CONDUCTED BY THE DOMINION EXECUTIVE COUNCIL.

(The Easter Conference of the United Labour Party voted to make no patier its special organ, but to provide official news and comments to. any paper promising to regularly publish the same. The paper is not responsible for this -column, and the party assumes no responsibility for any utterances of the paper except for its own official uterances in this department.) THE TARANAKI FARMERS. BOUND TO SUPPORT THE UNITED LABOUR PARTY. \ _, - The Editor of the Labour Page. , me a little space in vour valued columns to inquire how the United Labour Party, would protect the small farmer in the event of ah increase in the land tax.

- The prese'nt pries of land in Taranaki is bo high as to make it almost impossible for the large number of small farmers who have taken up land! recently, to make more than a hardearned living. If these men could be made to understand that any further land-tax would! be so arranged as to fall' on the iandi monopolist and. the wealthy land speculator and not en the genuine mer, then I think they would help in the fight against the party of privilege and sham. At the recent by-election hundreds of small landholders voted for thei Conservative candidate , because they' were told that the other fellow was a. single taxer and that the single tax: would bring ruin to all landholders The bulk of the Taranaki farmers are. working men who have paid three or four hundred down on the freehold of their farms and are paying interest on three or four thousand, which iai the balance of. the price of these "freeholds."

The small farmers are only making: a living on thu land, and if they were called upon to pay an increased land! tax they would Drobably have to forfeit all they have put into their farms,, and go back to wages. I hope youi will deal with this aspect of the casa; in some future issue.—l am,,etc.. OEO. Eltham, December 27th. OUR COMMENT. The inquiries contained in the above are of the gravest importance.. There are but two groups in New Zealand as related to the land question. One 01 these is made up of all those who live by rendering service of any Bort and the other is composed of all those.who live* because possessed .of some power by which they are able, to< prevent others from rendering service at all /unless they render unto dthersi larger services than they are permitted to receive for themselves. The United Labour Party is attempting to organise those who live by rendering service. It would not exclude* from its ranks nor from the benefits:, of its.proposals any of those yvbo live" by., rendering service. There is only room for one other political organisation in this country, and that organisation! is now in the control of the* Government of New "Zealand. Itsi| policy is to necura .every possible' advantagefor those how live at thei expense of others and to reader thei least possible Bervice to any of theuseful people so far as it is possible to. withhold such services and retain forthemselves the powers of the Government. The above letter is a direct inquiry is to what the United Labour Partywill do if given the powers of the Government with regard to. small'., farmers, and is'entitled to the most serious arid candid answer. In order that we may come directly to the -issues involved let the inquiry first be made as to-what those matters.' are of most serious importance to, these farmers ,which are. ; of siren au nature as can bB helpfully affected by, Government action. , ; ;

J. THE FARMER IS A PRODUCER

He is mainly a producer of the raw •materials usedi an-qther„ occupations .. The wool,' the lanibs, the milk; the; grain /.leaves ,* the farmer as hisi| finished product' to become ; the raw J; materials in other industries. None of!jl these can be produced . wiihbu t the*; J use of land. It ! is of the utmost im-ij portance that, those r who are to pro -*\\ duce these things to the greatest ad-< vantage shall be able to secure the*; lise of the 'and on the easiest terms..; ■Costly iand necessarily .means cheaps labour. It is of no more advantage to>; 4he farmer to be required to pay highr; prices for the land he uses, qr, what, amounts to the same thing, to lock:< up his own capital in high-pricedUj land, than it would be to insist tbafcj be shpuld, pay extravagant prices for the tbol3. the animals, or the othert incidental to his occupation. J v Doubling the price of land does not;; increase the price of 'butter. Doub-" ling the price of land doe* not increasei-' the price of wool. Quite the But doubling the price of wool would! speedily'double the price of land. It;, id to the farmer's advantage to pro- 1 duce butter fat at the least pos3ible>! expenditure and to dispose of it at thei. best possible advantage. Every penny added to. the cost of production,, therefore-lessens the margin of advan-' tage between the cost of and the selling price. f 2. WHAT ABOUT TOOLS? .i|

The-fsame is true of the tools hetij use<». New Zealand farmers are paying' . the highest price for land of any new\ country any where on the face of! ;f the earth, and they are also payings the highest price for,tools. The samen money invested to an advantage in thei? purchase of farm equipments woulctH practically double the efficiency of. 1 ; these equipments, and every farmer'! wba^ in his equipment would meanin that 1 sum total of his year's earnings. 1 .; jl

3. WHAT ABOUT CREDIT?

In the purchase of land and tooß especially for the farmers of thef>a mentioned by our correspondent, uie item of credit plays a moat important part. The volume of credit ia many times more thaii the volume of money. What the farmer borrows when he buy* land or tbolr 90 payments is not money, but credit. _ The power of money itself is based upon the collective credit of the wholß body of the people, farmers along with the rest. When a farmer or any other debtor borrows credit he i 9 Vimply arranging to use for his private advantage temporally the collective credit of the whole community. He is said to have good credit provided his own relations to the commnity are such that he is able to arrange for this private use of this collective credit. Interest payments on the purchass of stock, toote and land, are payments for the private use of the public credit, but tluse payments are not made to the accoupt of the public whose credit is thus made available, but to private interests. Besides, the payments are not determined by the cost of rendering the service, but by finding out hew much the farmers will consent to pay rather than forego the service altogether. 4. WHAT ABOUT TRANSPORTATION?

The farmer is emphatically a producer of things for the market, and in New Zealand especially for Jme foreign market It is just as impossible for him to reach the. market without the use nf the means of transportation, both national and international, as it is for him to produce without the use of the land and tools.

5/WHAT ABOUT MARKETS?

.When the farmer has produced his products find has provided for their transportation, he is still helpless in both the Home and foreign markets because he has no mastery over the markets, and those who do control the markets do so directly to the disadvantage of the farmers as well as to all other producers.

6. WHAT ABOUT THE SCHOOLS? Finally, the schools are of fundamental importance. It is impossible to make the best use of land without a knowledge of the composition of soils, of the nature of fertilisers, of the lawa of plant/ life, of the conditions of healthful animal life and of the mechanics involved in a more explicated, expensive, and effective equipment than is usually available for the New Zealand farmer. This knowledge can be placed within the reach of the farmers only by means of a past extension of the activities of the State schools and in the direct relation of these schools to the principal industry of the country, namely, agriculture THE REAL QUESTION Now, in all. these particulars the real question is this:—What does the United Labour Party propose to do concerning these matters, and what will the party in power, if permitted to remain in power, do with regard to these same things? This is of importance, because the Taranaki farmers, in common with nearly 100,000 other farmers in New Zealand, must use their power aB citizens to promote the control of public affairs by one or the other of these parties

MR MASSE Y'S PARTY'S LAND Mr Massey's party has proposed nothing whatever in the direction of making the land available for actual use on easier terms. So far as he has done anything he has proposed to lend money to thpse who have4and in order that they may make improvements prior to offering the same for sale. That means adding to the price of land and multiplying the difficulties in the way of securing land.

CREDIT.

Again, as to the matter of credit, instead of credit being made cheaper there is a distinct tendency to the increase of interest' rates, and no proposals whatsoever are made by the present Government looking to any change in that respect. TRANSPORTATION.

As to transnortation, New Zealand's exports are almost entirely agricultural, but profits privately appropriated and privately invested in enlarging the number of merchant snips belonging to a private company has already built one of the great commercial fleets of the world. There is no prop:sal on the part of the Massey Government to consolidate the whole service of transportation into a single, scientifically organised transportation service, nor is there any proposal by which rates can be so cheapened that the benefits of such improvements shall fall to the producers rather than to the speculators. M ARRETS^

As to markets, it is impossible for a farmer to personally supervise the selling of his products and the buying of his supplies, especially when this is done at the other end of the earth. Private interests purchase bis products, transport his products., market his products, and then in turn purchase his supplies, transport his supplies, and finally sell them again to the farmers, levying tribute at every stage all the way the products travelled to the markets away from hom|e and all the way that the supplies have travelled from the markets, on the other side of the earth. And the present Government has nothing to say about it, no programme to offer, no legislation to enact, nothing to do but to do nothing, while every monopoly continues to pick the pockets of the farmers of Taranaki. SCHOOLS. As to the schools, concerning these, there ia no indication on the part of any of the spokesmen for the present Government that ther» ia any appreciation whatever of the fundamental, importance of the State schools to the agricultural and industrial interests of New Zealand.