FARMERS' UNION CONFERENCE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 98, 27 July 1916, Page 5

FARMERS' UNION CONFERENCE.

LAND FOR RETURNED SOLDIERS.

Per Press Association. Wellington, July 26. After a long discussion, the Farmers' Union Conference resolved to express satisfaction at the steps taken by the Government towards providing land for returned soldiers, and also suggest the desirability of making provision at experimental farms for the teaching of returned soldiers the rudiments of farming so that they may be able/to take employment with farmers and complete their instruction. The Conference also pledged itself to assist and advise returned soldiers who decided to take up farming pursuits. REMITS CARRIED. , The Conference adopted the following remits : That Native lands, which benefit from expenditure of local rates or Government grants, whether titles are individualised or held in common, should bo placed on the same footing as regards such rates as land held by Europeans. That town members of Land Boards be paid for attendance at meetings, the same as county members. That this Conference protests against land owners being singled out to pay a greater part of war taxation, the present war taxation being tantamount to a class tax, and this Conference considers any taxation for war purposes should be an equitable one, and should bear equally on all classes of the community.

That the Conference protest against any embargo on the export duties. That the Government be asked to increase taxation on luxuries and

i amusements. i That the Conference favors the system of taxing incomes as being the fairest way of reaching war profits from the land and all other sources. That the Conference affirms the principle that New Zealand should assist materially in the naval defence ' of the Empire by providing ships and 1 men in lieu of a naval subsidy. That the Conference urge upon the Government the advisableness of putting into operation compulsory miliUary service forthwith, the committee i in each district to decide who should I go to the front and who should remain j to carry on the work of production. CONSCRIPTION. The President referred to conscription as enacted fin the United States during the Civil War, and considered it would be a mistake to do away with the voluntary system. Mr H. D, Vavasour quoted an English newspaper, which said that the best service New Zealand could do was to keep on producing, rather than send more men. His motion as to curtailing the calMng up of further contingents was rejected.