CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 December 1915, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

. FARMERS AND THE AVAR. Tn connection with the annual meeting of the Now Zealand Farmers' Cooperative Distributing Company, Ltd., in Wellington on Tuesday, Sir James Wilson said that the war had been responsible for an enormous rise in the values of exports, and he was quite certain that farmers should not be let off taxation lightly. As a matter of J'act, the fanners had demanded to be taxied, realising as they did how greatly they bemfifed by the free sea-way kept open by the British Navy. (Applause.) At ihe same time, it should be recognised that the farmers were now paying very much more for getting their produce. The New Zealand Government had done, well in commandeering the export meat supply, and the farmers acted wisely in agreeing to that course; still, hut for the prices fixed by (Tie Government, meat would have yielded .1:1,1)00,1)00 more to the producers than it had done. He did not believe nor intend to suggest that the meat was being unfairly dealt with in London, but. the farmers had nevertheless lost on selling their stock for meat. As for butter and cheese, it now cost .'id per lb to land it on the London market, ami it should be remembered also that the dairy farmer was, as a rule, a small anil struggling man, and often had to borrow money to get a start. They, therefore, were not in a position to give much. They were making money, but instead of .going into their own pockets it went in payment of interest on the enhanced, value of land. Cheese was abnormally high, but the cheese producers had done u generous thing in accepting from the Imperial Government a much lower price than the state -if the market warranted, hi that wav. indeed, they were contributing thousands .r

pounds'towards * war: The wool men, however, were making a lift of money. Still, he know ot' no men who had given and were giving so largely us they were lor patriotic purposes. And they were, lie was sure, quite prepared to give much more and to be taxed for more. Tt was the. men who had bought wool low and had recently sold it high that had made the money. He could not say whether their profits could be ascertained for taxation purposes, but he hoped thev could. ' '