TO THE FARMER.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 April 1919, Page 3

TO THE FARMER.

(Published by arrangement) My friend, the day is coming near when we, that is you and I, and a thousand others, will have to vote on this question of "liquor" or "no liquor." b'or myself, I hold no brief for publican or prohibitionist, they may he regarded as ihc two extremes, and that extremes M.eet is an old saw. But 1 would like to be satisfied about that four and one half millions compensation. The prohibitionists say every day, and in a thousand different ways, that drink is an evil, jn fact one would think from the daily and hourly bombardment that the people are subjected to that it is the only evil, that its abolition k the one desirable thing. Yet the same body proposes to pay the dispensers of this evil thing the sum of four million five hun- [ sired thousand pounds. Just think for | a moment- For years we have been

'i'ying to get from every Government .'.hat came into office a decent and comprehensive roading policy. You know ; what four millions would do in opening lands for settlement, in giving you good \ roads, and in saving your wives and I ohildren from that hell of mud, filth and J discomfort through which we, the far- ; I'iers of this country, have had for years to struggle because each Government was too poor to give us a metalled road. I have known broken heartß and ruined lives where a man has straggled on, breaking his back for the wife and kids and then given up broken-hearted. But they cannot afford to give us roads, and men like Walter Powdrell and Arthur "vnrton, whose acres are well roaded and whose bank balance enables them to I v iew things with indifference, want to • waste another £4.. r >oo.ooo and retard the settlement of the back country for fifty -cars. Now this money has to be paid for, and, my friend, it is men like you nnd me who will pay for it. The taxation must come out of the customs or the land, nnd T think we know, from Mtter experience, that the primary producer is hit every time. It may he said Hint there are farmers on the prohibitionist's side, and the question may be asked, how is it that they are voting prohibition? My friend, I will tell you. '-■i:ipo"« von wanted a motor ear, or vour wife wanted a new silk dress, but I in either caw you could not afford the money for these thinss, what would you do? Why you would do what the maturity of us do, you could not afford them and you would do without. Tint «upposo that you were a wealthy man, it is evident that whether these things were necessary or not. the expenditure on them would he a matter of indifference to you. But Mr Powdrell and Mr Morton are in just this uosition, they can afford to take up any fad which they j may fancy, besides, at the same time. | "ratifying a little of that love of being ! in the limelight which we all have. To ; them, prohibition, with its four million j five hundred thousand compensation is : of no immediate moment, in other \ words, they can afford to gratify their j fancy But to you and me, -who have j to remember what the war bos meant to .• us in increased taxation, and what w* will have to pay for the fifty thousand soldiers returning, and those already re- ] turned, this sum of monev. this iniouitous gift to what is loudly proclaimed to Tie an evil and wvsious trad", shocks the conscience and makes u« \ wonder at the quality of the brains that nrieinated the «chpmc. It is alleged by some of our budding economists that ve shall he better off by paving this tremendous sum of monev, hut does anyone really believe it? We have a chance, at the general election, to vote it out and pay nothing, and yet these wiseacres would tell ns to pay this sum now. Believe me that any monev borrowed for this unholy publican-cum-probibi-tionist deal will have to he paid for, and no specious theories will convince me that it will not come out of the land ultimately- Remember also that the people who pay at the present time arc the large tax-payers. They purchase an article to which they evidently attach some value, and this article is very heavily taxed, but you must remember, friend, that you and I who do not volunteer to pay this particular tax in this way. will, nevertheless, have to pay it if this deal is carried through- My doctor and lawyer, nnd most of the men with whom I do business, take, I think, an occasional glass and if in doing this they are paving a heavy tax, why on earth should we stop them; they can afford it better than I?

In the year book for 1014 the following occurs: Value of zcneral imports (not including alcoholic liquors or nondutiable goods) £21,501,031. Revenue from above £.1134,509. Below this you will see "Alcoholic liquors." value £555,045. Revenue from alcoholic liquors £783,525. In other words, general imports paid 24.14 per eent in revenue, alcoholic liquors paid 141.10 per cent. Tn ordeT to meet the deficiency which will be caused by ceasing importing alcoholic liquors, we shall, at the nreyent rate of taxation, have to import throe million pounds worth more general imports, that i» to nsy, that you and I and every other inhabitant will have to spend a sufficient sum to give us in the aggregate that extra three millions. Candidly, how do you like the idea of spending «x times what yon spend now per annum for the purpose of paviii£r out flip publican? There another considerations, one of them being that the trade may 'be re-instated in its present or in any other form by the noxt or niw succeeding government What do we do then? I suppose we must buy them out again A very cheerful prospect indeed. Well I must stop now, lint think it'over. I have put it as plainly a* T know how. The rest friend, I leave to yon. —FAHMBR,