The Waikato Times With which is Incorporated The Waikato Argus. SATURDAY, MAY 26, 1928. PILE-DRIVING.

Waikato Times, Volume 103, Issue 17412, 26 May 1928, Page 6

The Waikato Times With which is Incorporated The Waikato Argus. SATURDAY, MAY 26, 1928. PILE-DRIVING.

When we arc very young we like to think of our future selves as very fdrceful factors, like pile-drivers or battering rams or Mussolinis. Later on we And that there is not much use for the human pile-driver. Al • the Farmers' Conference just concluded in Hamilton a delegate compared the farmers' political efforts to an attempt to drive piles with a wool-bale. Butthe proceedings proved that these representative men were really far beyond the juvenile pile-driving idea in politics. There was evident in large measure the spirit of persuasiveness that farmers above all people know to he necessary if one would grow cows or cabbages or produce good political fruits. The delegates were ready to adjust their plans to the needs of the times as they would .adapt their farming to the- soil, the weather and the market. They had found that their efforts to get rid of that noxious weed protection had not been successful and they decided to try. a vigorous crop—-income-tax —to keep the weed down. In other words their response to the challenge of the Finance Minister (thrown out in his Cambridge speech) to find another source of revenue in place of protective Customs duties was their remit "that this conference supports the principle of income taxation as entirely sound and just . . . when applied to the individual." They were careful to repudiate the company tax, which is a tax not on incomes but on industry and thrift, levied at the same rale on the poorest as on the richest.

They protested against the polloy of reducing Income taxation while the CiihLouih tariffs remain high. In this re«pecl they might have gone further, nhowbig how greatly the Customs taxation has Increased during the pasl kiwsii years while the ineorne-lax has declined. And their protest would have been more forceful If they had Hpeclllcully denounced the sop thrownin the rich farmers in exemption from Income tax- a concession that benefits

the average working farmer not a penny which, in fact, puts a heavier burden on him since the lost revenue li.im to lx: made up from other sources. Another excellent resolution that might

well have gone farther was that declaring that any encouragement to be given by the State to the growing of cereals should be in the form of subsidies. The same principle would well apply to artificial assistance to any industry. If it were granted in the form of a. subsidy, I lie beneficiaries would know that if was not at all likely to be continued indefinitely, much less likely to be raised, so that efficiency and cheapness would be encouraged whereas the tariffs encourage incompetence and high prices. The protest against the use of preferential railway rates as an additional protection was also timely. With such decisions as the farmers have reached it should not be difficult to come near to an understanding with the other producers of the country. Of course, differences remain. The great financial interests will oppose heavy income taxation, and the town manufacturers would be unwilling to forgo protection till they saw something belter. But with the right machinery to bring the various interests together at a "round table" a happy growth toward agreement might be reasonably expected. Unfortunately the political system of to-day does not provide such machinery. It gives quite undue scope to parties and people with juvenile pile-driver in- j stincts.