THE BUTTER LEVY.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 May 1917, Page 7

THE BUTTER LEVY.

ITS U.VFAIR OPERATIONS. Particulars supplied by Mr. E. Marwelf to thu Board of Trad® placed before the Minister of Agriculture. _Mr. Maxwell said:—The following particulars showing the gross injustice of the butter-fat tax and tho severity with which it falls on wany, or I may say on small farmers arc taken 'from actual instances which have beon investigated and cheeked.

In some cases the whole of tho accounts have teen checked off with the merchants, auctioneers, and factory figures. °

No. 1. —A man "whose accounts I have made up for taxation purposes and whose net return (without interest on his own capital oi. over £2OOO at ."i per, cent. £IOO, was £l-38. This amount represents the total wages for the man, his Wife, and two daughters. Just the magnificent amount of 3d per hour for the actual hours engaged on the farm work. Taking the man at full time and the three women at half-time, ench is 'certainly not an overestimate. The money was earned on a remote, rough;, partly cleared bush place under all "tho hardships and drawbacks usually attached to such a. life in such a place. Strictly, tho total wages earned wero £3B, not ,£'l3B, because the man need only have lent his capital on the 'best security to have got £IOO for it. Now this £33 would represent 2d per hour wage for the man only with nothing whatever for his wife and two daughters. Now how does that monstrosity j>f injustice the butter-fat tax effect such a case? As applied to last year's returns from which the above figures aro given the following is the position—%d per lb on the butter-fat he supplied comes to £3o 2s, and the Id commission on value of cheose produced, £lO approximately, That means it would take the entire wages earned and £7 over, or £45 out of the gross income of £l3B or very slightly under one third of the total of the hardest earned mouey under the hardest conditions. What for? Just so that people living -with all tho comforts and conveniences of the town and earning, taking the wage earners only, from the very least Is up to 2s and 3s, or even 5s per hour in cases, may save a few coppers per week on their butter Bills. Taking from the one struggling dairy-farmer nearly one-third of his income—ld out of his 3d per hour wage—so that 40. or 50 town workers With a 9 many shillings per hour ag tho farmer earns in pence, may get their butier 2d per lb less. The above remarks will apply very nearly in the same proportion in most cases.

No. 2.—The farm is a cleared bush farm some distance back), and the results, and conditions are somewhat better than Nlo. I'. The' members of the family engaged on the farm work aro the man, his wife, and lad. The income including interest on about £ISOO of his capital invested in the farm at 5 per cent., £75, tob '£l77, or just about £IOO for wages for three people for 305 days—one at full time and two at half time—or less than 3d per hour if inter, est on capital is counted, or slightly over 4%d per hour if interest on capital is. not charged. On theso returns, the but-ter-fat tax would come to £2S 2s, and the 1J per cent, commission to approximately £8 or a total ot £3O 2s" more than one-third of the total wages or over one-fifth, 4s in the £. of the total income.

No. 3—A man receiving just over £6OO for his milk who has share-milkers on half shares, but who also apends all his time looking after and working in connection witli the farm. His half share from all sources is £350, oi'fj of which he has to pay over £2O in rates, £4 insurance, £6O interest on loans, 5 per cent, on his own £1500—£75, and innumerable charges, such as manure, seeds, wire, etc., etc., amounting t.n over £BO, a total of over £2#, leading him £llO for wages for the year, less fhan an ordinary laborer's wage, but out of which his half share of tho butter-fat tax would bo £lO 10s, and for l%d per cent, commission approximately £4 Ssi, or a total of £2O ,103 out of 1m £llO wages, just under onc-'ifth—4s in the £. Even thesa better results are only obtained after years of the hardest work building up his home. No. 'lt—A farm of just over 100 acres. The man and his wife milking. Income £l4O less interest on capital invested £IOOO at 5 per cent). — £3O, net income £9O wages for, the man and his wife, at time and a half, or very slightly over 3d per hour. His butter-fat t.a:: on above would be about £lO 10 and li per cent, commission, approximately £4 ss, or a total of £2O 15s out of £<JO wages—about 4a 7d in the £. No. 5—A farm or about) 120 acres. Man and two daughters engaged on farm. Ne; income £49 without interest on cost of .stock and plant. Taking the man at full time and the daughters at quarter eaoh, this does not represent 2d per hour, and yet out of this pittance the butter-fat tax would com© to about" £l3, and the 1 j commission to approximately £3 15s, a total of £lO los. Though this seems an almost unbelievable ease, it is an aotnal one,, the partloulars of which have been checked. It might well be said that there ia something very wrong, and this man ought not to be farming. Well, if so, why then extort such a sum from him! It would seem that the devisers of thiswonderful tax reversed the recognised principal— instead of the greater means the greater the tax, to the less the means the greater the tax. 'No. O—A mixed farm on which 45 cows are milked, last yean, gross income 'with all the high prices was £7BO, ■but' after paying interest, rent, rat<?3, wages, insurance, loss on stock, and the hundred-and-one other things incidental to running a dairy farm, his net income for himself and wife was £250 (what a huge amount to pay a dairy tanner ann iliis wife for 305 days work from daylight to dark, and often longer, after years at a mere pittance). His position this year is: He pays roughly £29 butter-fat tax, over £8 as cent, commission, and losses £ll, through broken con* tracts, a total o1 £4B. The following are the amounts that had to be paid under the iniquitious 'but-ter-fat tax, respectively by twelve struggling small dairy farmers who live up a bush rend and have to carry on their fanning operations under tho hardest conditions, amongst logs and stumps. The amounts are those which were actually deducted from their cheques for ono month only December the amounts are taken from tho factory books:— £J lis '3d, £5, £'s 5s 7d, £S 18s lOd, £1 19s fld, i£4 ,17s 0,1, £l' l?s Bd, £1 0s 3d,. £1 Os od, £2 1«j, 10s 6d, and £1 10s, These twelve aro all poor or comparatively hard-working, struggling bush farmers on leasehold land (not private lands). The land i 3 cleared bush land, and though they Imve been years at work, they do not even earn net incomes that would return