CHEEK OF THE WOOL KINGS.

NZ Truth, Issue 274, 1 October 1910, Page 4

CHEEK OF THE WOOL KINGS.

Canterbury Farmers' Union recently forwarded an astoaitndlng resolution to the Government urging the Executive to reduce the tax on land m proportion to the. labor employed by the backbone, With the object of encouraging cultivation and tnt;. employment of extra labor. It must foe cohfessed that the wealthy farmer (it Was a rich sheep-farmer Who originated, . the idea) is the sturdiest' beggar of alms the Dominion has seen. By this ' resolution he acknowledges, and brags, that he is not developing his land as it should be developed, that toe is acting the dogin the manger, by preventing the entry of industrious persons who would put the estate to teome use ; as it is, he is making a handsome income because the grass grows while he sleeps and plays golf ; now he has-; the superlative audacity to ask the workers to pay his land tax for him, or to escape payment of his just dues because he ■ employs men to increase his own wealth. The resolution is so remarkable that it should bo printed on some imperishable material and handed down to the umbiorn millions as a colossal joke born m the twentieth century. They say that when a person has been m contact with sheep and other stodlc for many yeiars he becomes sheep-like and cow-like m demeanor and loses all sense of humor, but this is probably a libel. At the same time the above resolution, which Was earnestly debated by the Farmers' Union, should justify the Government m still further increasing the land tax to induce the preposterous miendicants to part with tlfeir estates to people who will not require to be 'bribed to employ labor, when such employmient of labor will Mean their wn enrichment.