FARMERS' UNION

Southland Times, Issue 18847, 12 June 1920, Page 6

FARMERS' UNION

CANTERBURY PROVINCIAL CONFERENCE. (Per United Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, June 11. The annual conference of the North Canterbury branches of the Farmers' Union passed the following resolutions: That motorir licenses should be subject to cancellation or suspension in cases of negligence or carelessness. That it is (he opinion of this meeting that while the policy of running the railways as a whole should come from Wellington, the local traffic manager should be allowed more discretion in the control and management in his own district. That the dominion executive should appoint a committee to discuss ways and means of a profit-sharing system. That direct taxation should be levied in proportion to the taxpayer's ability to pay, irrespective of whether he derives his income from agricultural or industrial sources; (bi That the taxation of mortgages as at present is a grossly unjust violation of this principle, and should be immediately repealed; (cl That the taxpayer’s income is the only fair indication of his ability to pay taxation. That this conference calls on the Government to induce, if possible, the Commonwealth Government to allow the entry of potatoes into the States on production of a certificate from a Government grader that they are free from blight and disease. Mr W. A. Banks was elected president. In view of the wheat shortage it was unanimously resolved: “That this conference, in view of the probable world shortage of wheat, pledge? itself to do all in its power to induce farmers to increase the area sown in that cereal, and calls on the Government to use every means at its command to take delivery and store the wheat when produced.”