WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 August 1921, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

MR. MASSEY’S RETURN. ACCORDING TO ORIGINAL PROGRAMME. The statement contained in a cablegram published the other day to th'e effect that the Prime Minister would return from his Imperial mission in time for the opening of Parliament was incorrect. His colleagues expect Mr. Massey to leave London towards the end of next month and to arrive here in the first week of October. Parliament probably will open some time af ter the middle of September and occupy itself with the usual preliminaries and the Address-in-Reply till the leader of the House can take his place. This i the programme Mr. Massey mapped out before his departure and it seems likely to be foliowed-4t£ry closely. It is just possible, however, that on.his way hoine .the Prime Afinister may pay a flying visit to New York, which would delay his arrival in the Dominion for at least a week. In that case the meeting of Parliament might be deferred till the end of September, the leader’s colleagues having no desire to keep the House “marking time” for a longer period than may be necessary to demonstrate their ability to get along without him. FARMERS AND POLITICS. Though a large majority of the delegates to the Farmers’ Union Conference expressed themselves, in the terms of the remit from the Rangiora branch, as unfavorable to the formation of another political party at the present time, it was obvious that quite a considerable number of them were disinclined to abandon all hope of making use of their organisation for political purposes. The representative of the Rangiora branch in moving the remit committed to his charge told the Conference that in Can terbury there were as many supporters of the Liberal and Labor parties in the Union as there were supporters of “the other parties,” and that any move to bring these conflicting elements into the same political fold would result in the Union, so far as the southern province was concerned, “going to pieces.” This was the view of other speakers from Canterbury. But there was a militant minority from ~the North that’ had wearied of adopting resolutions l year after year without their receiving any serious attention from those in authority, and these stalwarts succeeded in detaching a sufficient number of votes from the pacifists to carry a motion affirming the desirability of amending the rules of the Union so as to allow it to take an active part in the country’s politics at an opportune time. COMPANY TAXATION. At an earlier sitting the Conference had reiterated its strong disapproval of i what one of the delegates denounced as the infamous system of applying the income tax to limited liability eomj panics. Here it was on sounder ground | and moved with absolute unanimity. The various speakers quoted instances of small shareholders drawing very substantial incomes from the same source escaping a large part of their liability through the exorbitant demand made upon their less fortunate fellows. This js an old grievance, tolerated by successive Governments simply because the permanent officers of the Treasury have found it easier to perpetuate a gross injustice than to devise a. scheme of assessment which would conform to ; the fundamental principle of equality of sacrifice. Hero, at any rate, the UMon should persist with its demand for reform even to the length of talking very plainly to the politicians. These gentlemen always have been sympathetic, but unfortunately have remained deplorably inactive.