Farmers are Doing Their Jobs

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 89, 6 July 1927, Page 13

Farmers are Doing Their Jobs

INCREASED PRODUCTION BURDEN OF TAXATION (THE SUN'S Parliamentary Reporter O "THE business men and chambers of commerce are too engrossed in telling the farmer to increase his production that they overlook the fact that they should begin by putting their own house in order.” Thus Mr. J. C. Rolleston in the House to-day. Mr. RoHeston, as an illustration, that the farmer was the progressive man in the Dominion to-day, quoted figures to show that production per occupied acre had increased from lAti lid in the year prior to the war to 19s 5d in 1925 —an increase of 30 per cent. In spite of this increased output, however, the farmer had been hit so severely that diminished prices and high costs had nullified his extra production, and his income was no better -than hitherto. He advocatea a tnurough investigation and revision of the local taxation, declaring that this was the burden which was falling with disconcerting weight upon the shoulders of the settlers. In fact, it was doing more to hold the farmer back than any other factor in his life. He quoted cases of people paying eightpence in the £ on the unimproved value of their properties, which had been assessed during the boom period, but these people had not had such facility as even a metalled road. “It is impossible under present-day conditions,” Mr. Rolleston said, “for roads to be metalled on the C for £ basis; it might have been all right 15 years ago, when money was only ■#£ per cent, but not now, when we have to pay 6J per cent.” In the central district of the North Island this was particularly applicable, for metal was scarce, and costs generally were high on account of the hilly nature of the country. He asked that, with a view to helping those who helped themselves, the Government should assess subsidies on a sliding scale, so that the heavily rated area requiring further improvements should receive greater subsidies than the lower-rated area. One of the items in local rating which was causing the ratepayers concern was the hospital rate, which was in some cases very inequitably distributed. The borough of Taumarunui for instance, paid £468, or 4s Id per head of population, while the Ohurn county, part of which was 30 miles from the Taumarunui Hospital, contributed £2,081, or 17s per head. The position was anomalous, and relief was urgently required by country districts.