OUR COMPETITORS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 178, 30 July 1932, Page 20 (Supplement)

OUR COMPETITORS

DANES CARRY HEAVY TAXES There is a general idea that Danish farmers are a frugal, hard-working lot, who. in spite of their high cost of production, are happy and prosperous. But apparently they are having a worse time from cost of living and taxation burdens than Australian fanners. A Dane (Mr. J. A. Jorgensen) recently visited (Denmark and on his return told something of ' the disabilities under which Danish farmers are labouring. He visited about 50 Danish farms, and he found that the lowest tax anyone paid was about 25s an acre, and it went up to more than £2 18s an acre, according to the value of the land, etc. Other members of the community are taxed equally high. Anyone working pays a tax of 10 per cent, or more. A postmaster with about £OOO income paid 35 per cent, of his gross income in taxes. A lawyer with about £2OOO income paid almost 40 per cent, of his gross income in taxes. A doctor with £9OO income paid about 30 per cent, in taxes. Many Danish farmers declared they were being taxed off their farm* Cne striking feature is the Danish farm home, says Mr. Jorgensen, with the luxurious and well-kept vegetable garden, as well as the fruit trees and berry bushes in the garden. The Danes know how to keep fowls, and with their use of pigs from tested sows, well supplement their income from butterfat, while they live cheaper and better than the farmers of this country, the majority of whom neglect their own tables.