MINISTER AND FARMERS.

Free Lance, Volume XVI, Issue 876, 20 April 1917, Page 8

MINISTER AND FARMERS.

Some Straight Talk: fIIHE grasping selfishness of a certain ~- class- of farmer has drawn from the Hon. Mr. Mac Donald, Minister for. Agriculture, a very outspoken and com-mon-sense reproof. Wherever the Minister goes on his patriotic mission of inducing the farmers to grow more wheat, some miserable small-minded "cocky" gets up and waxes indignant about •' 'the heavy ■ taxation'' he has to hear and so forth.. Down in Canterbury the other day the whine of the cocky was heard to a new tune. He wanted' a guarantee that the Government won't tax his profits on the new wheat more heavily than on the old. This was too much for Mr. Mac Donald, who promptly reminded the grumblers that if it were not for the British Navy the New Zealand farmer would not be able to send a- single bale o£.wool,\a hag of wheat, a crate of cheese, or a.box of butter to-.■ the Home market. The • farmer sbould remember that and not seek to drag the biggest possible tern-

porary 'market price put. o£ the British; Government. '<» ' .' o '.©'■ ■•<* - So far as taxation on profits.is concerned, went on the outspoken Hon. Mac, there would certainly he more of it this year. At present Australia, is taxing 75 per cent., New Zealand only 45 per cent. The war is costing the Dominion nearly a million a month, and more money would be wanted and would have to be forthcoming. We are glad to see that Ministers are at last awakening to a sense of duty. It is their duty to tell the farmers —-and every one else —-that as yet New Zealanders have made no real financial sacrifice for the Empire's cause. If the whole of his war profits have to be taken, the producer would still be tinder a heavy debt of gratitude to the British Army and Navy. '