The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, JULY 30, 1909. A MEETING OF FARMERS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2567, 30 July 1909, Page 4

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, JULY 30, 1909. A MEETING OF FARMERS.

The greatest value of the Farmers’ Conference at present being held in Wellington, lies in tho fact that it consists of practical men facing in a practical fashion tho primal needs in national development. It is upon the land that we all subsist, and whether the land is being'well or badly used dcpenMs upon tho efforts and the intelligence of the farmers whose, representatives are in conference now. A successful farmer adds a definite and substantial amount to the nation’s wealth, its prosperity, and its avenues of employment; an unskilful or unsuccessful farmer restricts all these blessings. Thus the educative effect of these conferences, where tho brains and knowledge of many farmers are given to the service of all, must have a value to tho community. So far as tho Conference has progressed up to the present there does not seem to havo been as much attention given to matters directly affecting the productiveness of tho soil as we should have wished, but doubtless these may still be dealt with. The value of applied chemistry to various operations of farming, and the lessons learned by individual farmers in the hard world of actual experience should' be made known to all, for it m in this way that all-round efficiency is attainable. These matters are at present left largely w’ith the State to demonstrate through its agricultural departments, but a large amount of useful work in a similar direction should be accomplished at farmers’ representative gatherings. Up to the present consideration has been mainly given to topics with a political bearing, but they have been discussed, not as theories around which partisans may fight endless wordy duels, but as principles which cut directly, for good or ill, into the industry by which the farmers live. Thus we find the President protesting against the unfair manner in which taxation has of late years been heaped upon that section of "the community which has dared to own land. Within ten years the taxes on land have more than doubled. The utter absurdity of raising tho unimproved valuations aceoi'dmg to tho practice of late years is also very properly condemned. It is in this way that tho Government has made itself the chief offender in bringing about the undue inflation of land values, which has resulted so disastrously to the country during the past 18 months. The perennial question of the freehold is again raiscM, and it seems evident that this will be a big issue in the next session of Parliament. The Ward Government doubtless imagined it had settled the matter by the compromise which followed its humiliating hack-down during the term of the last Parliament. This, however, is one of those problems that can never be really settle 4 J until it is settled right, namely, by giving to all Crown settlors the right of obtaining a clear title to the bold-, ings they have farmed. Farmers are necessarily vitally interested in the reservation from settlement of the vastareas of Native lands which at present block the progress of the country. Many of them have allotments adjoining the weed-infested areas of the Maoris, whilst more of them have sons who will soon be on the look-out for farms of their own, and from every point of view they are vitally concerned in the Native lands question. Tho conclusion they came to after a full discussion was:

“That tlio time has arrived when Maoris should bo granted the same political and local government privileges as those of the European race; that every effort should be made to individualise their lands, and that when individualised such lands should be liable to rates, with power to distrain; that when ai'eas are held in common the Government be liable for rates, such rates to be a charge on the land, the Government to have power to take over such lands, with the exception of cultivable reserves, at a valuation, the whole of the purchase money being held in trust for such Natives as can prove their interest.” It is almost certain that the ultimate solution of the Native lands question will he on lines very similar to those embodied in this resolution. As will be noted, the Acting-Premier dealt very fully with this subject at Papawai, and his announcement is of such importance .as to necessarily form a subject for special consideration in a separate article.