THE FARMERS’ CONFERENCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16566, 2 June 1914, Page 10

THE FARMERS’ CONFERENCE.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—Tho president’s remarks to his compeers were no doubt tho more appreciated in that they conformed to the desires of his audience ratlicr tosn t'j sound logical conclusions resulting from study of economics. _ 1 nave no wish to depreciate Mr r>nsor's eulogy of the services of farmers generally, but his delusive diagnosis ot tho political and industrial ailments with which farmers nro continually faced are calculated to encourage a perpetuity of that ignorance which prevents thousands of genuine farmers and people desirous of obtaining lanfl from realising who their greatest enemies really are. . Such palpable misrepresentation can do little or no harm,, delivered as it was to th© representatives of squatterdom and kid-glove agriculturists, who arc as well or better acquainted with its inaccuracies as is the president self. To the tax-burdened man behind the plough it presents only one form of parasite, the landless non-producer, the product of the much greater, unmentioned parasite, the non-producing land monopolist and consumer, of rents and public earnings. Should the mouthpieces of New Zealand’s farmers honestly desire to encourage tho growth of a. population of self-reliant producers, they could render invaluable assistance by electing Mr Ensor to lecture on the increased value of his estate through the expenditure of loan money, the interest on which is paid by taxing watersiders’ hoots, etc. Mr Evans, who is not a farmer but a miller, should be able to explain to his farmer clients the profits accruing to his business by the.imposition of the flour tax. To avoid strikes and lock-outs in the future generations, I would suggest placing texts from the books of some of the illustrious writers of the day in the copy-books of the public schools, such as “ Protection does not protect,” while economics could he made, a standard subject in place of Alfred the Great and the cakes or Henry the Eighth’s wives.—l am, etc., ' ■ _ , P. ACTON.. Sumner, June 1.