Farmers' Union.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 190, 15 April 1902, Page 3

Farmers' Union.

Auckland, April 11

A meeting of the Executive of the Farmers' Union was held this afternoou. The chairman, Mr Kirkbtide, said that the first subject discussed at the recent Trades and Labour Conference was the incidence of taxation. - One speaker had reminded the conference that there might be such a thing as taxing a man off the land ; yet if one speaker, favoured ; an increase in the graduated tax, and a •hea'-Tier. tax on absentees, or another suggested an increase in the income tax, they were altogether unanimous that the burden of taxation should be thrown .on "the other "fellow."" A f ter proposing to pile it on to people who made a living out of the land, it seemed somewhat ironical to suggest, as one speaker had done. " That they should try' tb work in harmony with the Farmers' Union." During a discussion on the revaluation of Crpwn leases it was threatened that, " if the Farmers' Union -persisted in their efforts to secure the freerlolil they would at once come into conflict with the labour party." Members of the Farmers' Union would not be deterred from carrying out its opinions on a question affecting the land, and were banding together to protect, their interests, and w'oula'riot be dictated to by men ignorant of the conditions of the farming community. With one dissentient, the Conference proposed that all Crown leases should be revalued periodically. They came as pioneers from the Old Country to secure freehold properties, but how many would have come out to be offered leasehold with revaluation every five years ? The greater weight which the Government attached to the opinions of tradesmen in preference to farmers showed the necessity for completing the organisation of farmers to take up the position in a body,, as their numbers warranted'.