The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1892. The Stock Bill

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 22, 9 August 1892, Page 2

The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1 892. The Stock Bill

This measure introduced hy the Minister of Lands, provides, for inspection, for penalties for obstructing inspectors, for driving diseased stock, for the possession and removal of infected sheep, or the illegal introduction of stock, and for the introduction of the virus of disease. Returns of sheep and cattle are requested to be made annually. A yearly rate has to be paid by the owner of 2d per head over ten head of cattle, and 2s for every hundred or fractional part of a hundred sheep owned on the last day of March. On the petition of a two-thirds majority of the owners of sheep any district may be exempted from wool branding. Private earmarks are prohibited. Owners of stock are required to register their lambs under a £5 penalty. A penalty of £50 is provided for using another persons' brands, and for defacing brands a penalty of £50 is imposed for each head of stock. Of course there is an increase of taxation on the farmer, but still there are several " relaxations " which may be found beneficial and act as compensation for the monetary loss. It would appear that the town Members of Parliament look on people who live in the country as sponges that may be squeezed to any extent. The latest development of this singular belief is that of Mr Shera, the member for the City of Auckland, who has suggested to the Minister of Agriculture the introduction of a Bill to enable farming districts within certain limits to constitute dairy factory districts, with well-defined boundaries, giving such districts power to levy rates to establish within each district a cheese and butter factory, which shall be under the control of the district authority. This is about as silly a proposal as it is possible for a Member of Parliament to make, and that is saying a good deal. What with general and local taxation, it has always struck us, who live among farmers, that the graziers and cultivators of the soil have already enough to pay in the nay of local taxation without having to pay rates to maintain employes in the butter factories. To use a parliamentary phrase this may be another attempt *• to introduce the thin end of the wedge " which is to put the entire weight of the burden of taxation on residents in the country electorates. Tho outlook is not cheerful. There are frozen meat companies, and all sorts of other companies in the country. Let us suppose that they were to prove the utter failures that cheese and butter factories have been. The remedy for the shareholders is simple. All they have to do is to " get a- Bill " to constitute a " frozen meat " district or any " industry " that has failed through bungling or dishonesty, and put the burden on tho shoulders of the ratepayers. Although it looks absurd on the face of it, yet these sort of things could easily happen in a country like this where many of our legislators as soon as they enter the House, appear to leave behind them all semblance of cotninuu sense.