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Gisborne Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1804, 10 July 1906, Page 1

We are inclined to think there is a growing disposition to over-rate the farmer’s position on the land. Very often he is found in struggling circumstances ; the birth-rate seldom suffers in the country as it does in the towns, and large families are the rule on most farms, so that with the care and education of his children upon him the farmer’s responsibilities are great. The comforts which town life affords are largely denied to the man on the soil, and, relatively, he is at a greater disadvantage in securing the education of and accomplishments for his children than the worker in the city. Added to this he bears a far larger proportion of the cost of local government than the man in the city, and very often he is without railways to convey his produce or even decent roads to travel upon. He ought, as a matter of fact, to receive far greater consideration than is accorded him, and should be the last person in the community to be singled out for special taxation. If, therefore, the incidence of land taxation is seen to be oppressive in his case, as it may well prove to be in the near future, it seems to us, he is fairly entitled to claim a reconsideration of the methods of assessing and taxing land.—Farmers’ Weekly.