MR W. OLDFIELD AND TAXATION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2378, 5 July 1892, Page 2

MR W. OLDFIELD AND TAXATION.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —As you thought fit to comment upon my letter to the Rangiikei Advocate, please oblige me by publishing it in full. The charges of ignorance or untruthfulness, I will attend to later.—l am, etc., Wm. Oldfield.

g THE EDITOR RANGITIKEI ADVOCATE. Sir, —As we shall shortly hear a good deal about taxation from the candidates for Parliamentary honors, I would like to say a few words before the battle commences as to the manner in which it affects the farming community, and, as I am not an elector and do not know any of the candidates person.tlly, I shall deal with the question as’it strikes me as a farmer. Under the Property Tax every person possessing anything over £SOO in value in any form is liable to a tax which varied from the ups and downs of financial necessity, and it was considered perfectly right that every person should embark in any line of business that he might consider advisable, giving an equal share to the cost of government. As we all know that we cannot all live by one trade, it seems a fair tax. But this did not suit certain classes, and so they looked around and bethought them of the Land and Income Tax, the provisions of which nave placed all farmers, big and little, in a very unfair position. It has been said on many occasions that a man was entitled to tucker before taxation, but under this law as soon as a man buys a farm he is liable to a tax on its value. They do not wait for him to grow a crop or get any return, but tax him right away, and while a man in any other trade is allowed a clear £3OO a year the farmer is pot allowed a penny, and whether ]ie gains or loses by his business he is bopipf to pay the Land Tax. Now I wish tQ impress upon the farmers, big and little, that the question before them is not vp-hether they pay more or less than under the Property Ta*, but whether they are treated fairly and equally with other trades i Are we going to admit that other trades are entitled to a good comfortable living (which no one begrudges them), while we ai’e not entitled to pstatoes and salt until our Land Tax is paid ? A good many have been led to believe tljat, it does not aflbpt them in their pockets as small holders. I would point out that it affects them as a trade when they consider that themselves and their wives and children receive less consideration in the scale of taxation than gapiblprs apcl prostitutes. I think that every pian that is a pian will inpisi upop being placed on an equal footing with the rest of the community, and claim as a map that whatever form of taxation is necessary that he has the same right to a living as others.—l am, &c., William Oldfield, Eccleston.