WAR TAXATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 16921, 29 July 1915, Page 11

WAR TAXATION.

VIEWS OF FARMERS. OBJECTION TO DUTY ON EXPORTS. [Pib Pniss Association.] • WELLINGTON, July 28. Strong objection to the proposed tax upon exports was taken this afternoon by the delegates to the Farmers' Union Conference, which is being held in Wellington. Seven remits from various districts in the Dominion appeared on the order paper. A committee, which had been set up to combine these, submitted the following resolution for the consideration of the conference : "That the Government be urged in the event of a war tax being levied that it should be made to press equitably on all members of -the community, but this conference strongly objects to a tax upon exports." Mr James Begg (Otago), who moved the resolution on behalf of the committee, objected to a tax upon exports, not because it touched the farmers' pockets- but upon principle. The present was a fitting time to protest against such a tax. High prices undoubtedly stimulated production, and the prosperity of the country depended upon an increasing volume of exports. Mr T. Moss (Wellington) thought the Government should be left a free hand in imposing a tax, and the resolution, therefore, did not embody a definite scheme. The prosperity which had come to the farmers had been shared by the wage-earners, and a tax upon esports would not do the country any good. Mr J. Boddie (Auckland) said he did not desire that it should go abroad that the farmers objected to a tax upon exports because they were interested parties. To tax property and incomes would be more unfair than to tax exports. He suggested that a 1 per cent tax would not be felt by the men on the land.

Mr G. Sheat (North Canterbury) said he would be sorry to see the working man hit through the Customs. After further discussion the resolution was adopted on the voices.