The Times. PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS. TUESDAY, JULY 24, 1917 FARMERS AND THE WAR.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 295, 24 July 1917, Page 2

The Times. PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS.

TUESDAY, JULY 24, 1917 FARMERS AND THE WAR.

"We nothing extenuate, nor set down auditt in malice."

IT would bo idle to attempt to disguise the fact that a very considerable number of people are under the impression that the farmers of this Dominion have had exceptional prosperity brought to them by the war. It is, perhaps, not altogether surprising that such an impression should have become prevalent. The war has created for our primary products ail extra- ! ordinary demand, an assured market and high prices. Fully cognisant o! this fact, and looking only at the one side of the farmer's ledger, the average townsman has jumped to the conclusion that the man in the country must be having the time of his life. This idea is both : erroneous and unfair. The ; popular misconception is no j doubt born of the knowledge , that the exports of the Do- <

minion have shown a largo increase in value over pre-war times but as against this has to be placed an increased wages bill and the extra heavy costestimated at from 100 to 400 per cent—which the farmers have to pay for all their necessities. On these items the much-talked-of " war profits " of the farmers dwindle to insignificant dimensions, if, indeed, they do not actually pass below the vanishing point. Another fact and one probably overlooked by the great majority of the farmers' critics, is that a considerable proportion of the " profits," which are supposed to go to the producers, in reality finds its way into the pockets of the speculators and dealers. This is no time for the stirring Enpfficlass animosities. Faced as .we are with the stern realities of war, Town and Country should be found working shoulder and shoulder for the national weal. It is for the Government to see that the burden of sacrifice is equitably distributed, but this will certainly not be achieved by any system of taxation with discriminates between class and class. Professor Sprague, an American economist, has ex--1 pressed the judgment that " all, or at least 95 per cent of all, incomes in excess of the average annual income received during the two years preceding a war should go to the State," and that, in addition, ordinary income should be taxed " to the bone," but not beyond the-point ; which would still leave every class of taxpayer sufficient income to maintain the essentials of its customary standard of life. In additiom to taxes on income, special taxes on a few articles entering into general consumption should, in Professor Sprague's opinion, be imposed. Our legislators may not be prepared to go quite so far as this ; but we believe that the solution of the taxing problem most acceptable to the entire community is to be looked for along the lines suggested by Professor Sprague. The dairy farmers may be said to have a case of their own, and their special grievance is the butter-fat tax. They regard this tax as an obnoxious imposition which, even as a class tax, does not fall equitably, for the reason that those whom it hits the hardest are those who are struggling to establish themselves. It has been asserted that the tax takes in some cases from one-quarter to one-half of the small wages earned under the hardest of conditions. It has been further urged that it is a tax on the gross output, quite irrespective of whether there is a profit or loss, and that in operation it is entirely opposed to the principle of taxation in accordance with ability to pay. There is a prevalent idea that the war has brought the average dairy farmer undream-ed-of wealth, comparatively speaking, and that the butterfat tax merely skims a little of the cream of his big profits. The farmers'version is that it is not a war profits tax, because it is only those farmers who have had the good fortune to become well-established who are making any war profits at all.