The Dominion. MONDAY, JULY 26, 1909. THE FARMERS' CONFERENCE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 569, 26 July 1909, Page 6

The Dominion. MONDAY, JULY 26, 1909. THE FARMERS' CONFERENCE.

Although it is'in some respects a pity ith'at Fk'rmers'.'.trhioii-ha's" to' hold' this ■year's i g'erieral....confe.r.encei. ; which .begiris to-morrow, .during a .iParliamehtary re-. :.cess, there i^at:least : some advantage inbeing free' from the" competition' of Parliament for the: space''of'- the newspapersand the attention" of the public, During recent, years there havo been persistent .attempts to break up. the.Union by fostering dissension;': f amongst-'the farmers; . That the Union has grown; -steadily: in strength Land' importance,.'.despite; tho anxiety/of the ..Socialistic and • Kadical forces in the communitytto represent.it as a (branch of a political party, is thei natural ;'■' rosult. of the .sincerity. of.' the; Union's, w.prk, and the fidelity with which it .reflects the opinions of the average agriculturist.'; In'its eight or nine years of, life the Union: has made good progress, and it, commands the confidence'<of landbolders great and small.; This year's Conference;.is the .most ■ important 'that' has , :yet-been held, since.the;new. : . Parlia-:-ment, besides-being likely : to show a great deal-more independence of the Government than" the late.Parliament,' contains; a very-strong body of. hostility to the' anti-agrarian- doctrines which have more and more dominated the country's legislation. The most important subject to be dealt with is of'course: the general question of Crdwri 1 land tenure. It is not necessary to discuss; here: "a subject which has .probably been more discussed in late years than any .matter,of national interest, not excepting even the Arbitration' Act. Owing mainly to the efforts of the Union; there: is 1 now in the House a major-: ity favourable towards the granting of the: freehold, -Ministers have been notably silent on thfc question of land tenure, since-the elections, but it' must: be. assumed from tho allocation :of the Lands portfolio to a leaseholder that-the Government' does not intend to give up, its policy. without';a. struggle. At tho same time the : financial embarrassments of the Government; which have led Ministers to lay much : Btress on the merits of the :Land.:for ; Settlements..Finance Bill, may incline them to see that by giv-' ing Crown lessees the right of purchase, onepf the obstacles to-further land; settlement—namely, a shortage of cash-Mvill be overcome. ', It will be well if the Conference, in re-affirming the principle of the freehold, makes it clear that the freeholders in the House must not delay in having the question'fought out. The assistancri of the; Conference -will-'bo-valu-able, too; : in forcing upon tho : Government' the urgency of .terminating the present outrageous position in connection with Native lands. ,

There are seven remits dealing with land valuation—a very natural reflection of the widespread discontent, with the fashion in which the Valuation Departmont has abused its functions by increasing the unimproved value at the cost of improvements. There, have been indications that the Government is not unwilling to reconsider.the policy of Department, and tho Conference should not omit, there fore,, to state its case with the fullest emphasis. While we arc afraid the sonsible; suggestion from. Taranaki that the;prcsent land tax; should be VoJilaiW' by an' income tax "or a tax

on the annual value is a little too heroic for the times, there is a better prospect for the protests against' tho. mortgage tax. That that tax assists to discourage foreign investors on mortgage, boUi by itself and by tho likelihood that it may be increased, is undoubted, and aa a matter of fact it is quite .unnecessary. It may be worth whili , . to note here that in the British Uudgct debates a tax on mortgages was frequently mentioned ae a thing on tho unwisdom of which fill men arid all parties arc ontiroly agreed. ' One of tho planks of the' Union affirms that taxation through tho' Customs should' be for revenue, purposes only. The Confercrico is to be asked not only to affirm this principle'in respect'of imported timber, but also to tako immediate steps to make tho plank generally effective. The time is not ripo for the raising of,tho fiscal issue in a form so acute ns this,, but we bolicvc that a debate '.on" tho proposal would bo. most instructive, as the public is rarely asked to , road the caso for '■ a. revenue tariff. While most of the remits' relating to the railways deal with special aspects of the question, wo aro glad to note that the first place is given to aTaranaki proposal that tho Conference should affirm tho principle that tho railways should pay. With propor management the system would pay its way easily, and allow of a reduction of freight charges. Tho lines in this island, it must not bo forgotten, were able to pay 4.28 por cent, in 1907-8, which proves that the charges wore anything but too low. Wo cannot enuinorato all the subjects'down for discussion, but we may note that although they arc, for the 'most part subjects of purely agrarian there are no fewer than seven remits approving of compulsory military training. Slit J. G Ward has made it clear enough that only tho strongest pressure will persuade him to do anything in this matter. THoro is one remit, sent on by the Auckland Conference, which is■' singly more important than any other, so far as the future of the Union is concerned. The proposal is, that in order "to make the Union more effective as a political body," all the branches in each electorate should bo, organised under an executive committco for that electorate. We cannot see any reason why this scheme should not be adopted. If war is made on tho farmer along political lines, it would be tho height of folly for him to refuse to defend himself politically. And the trend of politics has been all against the farmer in late years. It ia on him that tho doctrinaires bost -love to operate ; it is to him that the Treasurer's eyes turn most often in quest of revenue. He cannot keep - clear of politics, for the simplo reason that politics arc thrust against' him. We have over and over again shown that the farmer has more reason to be politically alert than any other man —far more reason, oven, than tho trades-unionist. Tho last general cloetion marked a turn in tho tide of State Socialist domination, and it is at the next general election that the farmors must exercise all their power if they arc to make themselves, quite safe against aggression. ' There is, of course, no reason why the Union should run its own candidates for scats in Parliament. Nor would, such n coursfi bo necessitated by tho adoption of the Auckland proposal. But it is urgently necessary that such organisation should'be effected as would ensure that the farmers in-any oloctorate would bo left in no doubt as to the candidate who would best serve their interests.