FARMERS' UNION CONFERENCE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 187, 29 July 1908, Page 4

FARMERS' UNION CONFERENCE

THE JfIUiSIDEXTS KI'JiEQI. SOCIALISM AXIJ LAN'I) I'EXUKE. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Tuesday,

'The annual conference of the New Zealand Farmers' Union commenced to day. 'Mr. -). G. "Wilson, the president, was in charge. Referring to tin* Land Act, the pvusident, in his address, said it was unsatisfactory from I tit l point of view of tin* Union, I nit- preferable to to the Mill originally introduced l«y Mr. .YlcNab. That J-iiil, if it li:id been passed, woul.l have caused a. linaiieial erisis. The present Act dealt mure, harshly with I:sij lauded proprietors, l»nt it did not lunch.: iiuincial arrangements being made. Sir .JiiM'ph Ward was entitled to -the thanks of [lie Union for abolishing the siuvp (.ax. Strenuous ell'orts should be made to have Mime alteration effected in the. system of valuation of land for taxation purposes. At present tint valuation was an arbitrary amount wbieli tin; valuer called unimproved value—a ridiculous 1< rm—and arrived at by a mere guess. There should be a recognised difference between the selling value and the taxable value,' and until some such basis was decided on fanners would feel aggrieved. After reviewing the fluctuations of prices for farm produce Mr. Wilson said there appeared to be excellent prospects for the coming season. ( Ho regretted, however, to say that very few farmers were culling their herds by.test, though it had been proved over and over again that their output would he increased quite thirty per cent, by carefal selection.

' "The union of farmers," said the president, "is more than ever desirable sine; the Socialists have captured the trades and labor 'councils." He added that he believed that by far the best means to make a ma •, whether a worker or not, a happy, contented and prosperous colonist was to enable him to make a home of his own. That, however, would not

satisfy the socialistic propagandist, lie warned fanners to beware of the step-ping-stones, single-tax ami nationalisation of land. The lirst was the easiest of accomplishment, and a Jinn believer in the system had crept into the inner counsels of the nation. Every addition to the land-tax was a step in the direction of single-tax. Land nationalisation had got a leg in too. How they were to combat thewo tendencies and hinder their growth, ■even if at the moment they could not defeat theni, was matter for consideration by the conference. It was certain that complete combination of landowners formed the, surest method of doing so. On the motion of Mr. Rell (Auckland) the Cuion passed a resolution protesting against any attempt being made by the Government in the direction of land nationalisation, and urging that the legislation of last session, by which nine million acres of Crown lands were removed, from the- optional system when thrown open for settlement, was another step ill this direction. It was also decided, "That in the opinion of the Conference no tenure is satisfactory to the farmer unless provision is made by which a mlector can acquire the freehold of his s'-.-tion after he has complied with the conditions of .residence and iniprow-!i,«-ni.s: that the optional system should applv to all lands; and that the Conference favors reasonable limitation of area, such provision to apply to anyland occupied under any conditions set out in anv of the Land Acts.' 5