TEMPORARY EXPEDIENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 743, 16 August 1929, Page 10

TEMPORARY EXPEDIENT

MR. POLSON ON PRIMAGE TAX MAKING LAND PAY ALL {THE SEX'S ParliamcnUii'y Reporter.) PARLIAMENT BLDGS.. Thurs. Denial of charges of inconsistency made against him on the ground that, while he approved the primage duty increase he, as president of the Farmers’ Union, advocated lowering the Customs rate for farmers in New Zealand, was uttered in the House of Representatives this evening by Mr. W. J. Poison in the course of his speech. Mr. Poison defended his attitude on the ground that the primage duty was a temporary expedient, which was necessary. It saved the enormous labour of recasting the whole of the taxation system, and would only last eight or ten months. He did not agree with Labour’s remedy, which was to place the whole of the burden of the increase on the land Mr. H. T. Armstrong (Christchurch East): Who said that? Mr. J. McCombs (Lyttelton): Nobody said any such thing. Mr. Poison: The member for Wellington Central (Mr. P. Fraser) said so on the floor of the House. Mr. Armstrong: You’re bushed. Referring to Reform’s opposition to the tax, Mr. Poison said that any opposition came well from the party which piled up the duty on farming implements, and allowed linotypes for friendly newspapers to enter the country free. As farmers, he and his fellows had not forgotten that if the whole tax were put on the land, as Labour said, the burden would be too heavy for the farmers.

Mr. TJ. E. Holland. Labour Leader: Why do you persist in making that misrepresentation? Mr. Poison: My own ears have not deceived me.