FARMERS' UNION CONFERENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 July 1917, Page 3

FARMERS' UNION CONFERENCE.

RESOLUTIONS 'AND REMITS. Uy Telegraph.—Pros* Association. Wellington, July -24. The Farmers' Union Conference discussed the question of taxation, and passed ft resolution to the effect that in place of the present excess profits tax, the Government be requested to raise the necessary revenue by a graduated income tax.

The conference reiterated it? protest against the imposition of an export tax. A proposal that the amount should be covered was defeated. It was resolved: That this conference records its emphatic protest against the butter-fat tax as being unjust and uncalled for, and a special tax upon one of the hardest worked sections of' the community. Another resolution passed was to the effect that as the labor of a farmer's family is so essential to the carrying on of the farm work, there should be an additional exemption, say, of £SO each for every member of the family over fourteen who the head of the family declares is engaged for at least a third of his or her time on the farm work.

I, The following remits were carried: That the occupiers of National Endowment lands be granted the option of purchasing the freehold, and that all such lands be thrown open on those terms as required, and the proceeds, however invested, to remain as a national endowment. That the Government bo I asked to have the lands of the Dominion periodically valued, at intervals of i not less than seven years, and that the | valuations of contiguous counties be undertaken in rotation according to their position to each other. That it be a recommendation to the National Efficiency Board that in all cases of appeals by shearers and slaughtermen a Trustees' Board's report be obtained for presentation to the Military Service Board before a decision is arrived at.

FURTHER RESOLUTIONS. Wellington, July 25. At the Farmers' Union Conference a remit tliat no more agricultural and pastoral labor should be militarily conscripted was rejected by 20 to 8.