Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1878 - 1954), Tuesday 12 July 1927, page 13


PRODUCERS IN CON-

FERENCE.

THE GAYNDAH MEETING.

HOSPITAL AND WATER TAXES

CONDEMNED.

At a rulllt'l (Mll'l1 ot ¡I lilllllhei Ol distrio! UP.A.'s ¡II Gayndah on .lune btli, mutters- of importance lo j-rn.lIK/I-I-- were discussed, »oiiielhiiig ol' ilic kind being contemplated in this district, ii bas been siiggisled that it «ill be interest-ing lo reprint tili« report ul tba proccedngs:

Woodmillar 1..P.A.: "Timi, a initiier protest be entered against the incidence ol tho hospital tux."'

Mr. Moonie described the tax «s being nio-t unfair, imposing a» it liiii an ad-dition heavy burden on the man on the land, who was already staggering under thc load be had lo earn. There was absolutely no jitstilicatiun for the lax being confined to ratepayers, and al-lowing perioiis holding good positions, who did not possess properly, to es. ape. He emphasised the great. difference which existed in thc payments made by farm-ers and those in the towns. Tho formor bad to pay i:) or ft and perhaps ii|. tu £20, whereas the latter only Ind to pay 5s. or los. lt was most unfair, and be noted that a proposal was to be dealt with at thc forthcoming local anthon, tics' conference that the Government percentage be increased from 0(1 per cent to 75 per cent, and the local authori-ties' quota reduced from -ld per cent to 25 per cont, 15 units of the latter to be contributed by town residents and 10 units by country residents. While

this may lie a relief, bc considered it was not'just. Thc hospital tax should bc imposed on everybody by a system similar to the income tax, which wr.s recognised throughout thc world .1A thc fairest means of raising revenue for public utilities. Thc '.'overnmcnl should go thc whole hog, and nationalise thc hospitals of the State. He referred tu a recent, meeting of farmers at Gayndah, when it wes decided to ask the Shire

Couticil to show thc amount of hospi-tal rete separately on the rate- notices, the idea being that tuc time may arrive when they would refuse to pay, and they would require to know the amount they would deduct from their rates. That time, he considered, hail not yet ar-rived. lt was a State-wide matter, and required organising. He moved thc motion ns set out above, with thc ad-dition of thc words "and request thc same be collected on an income basie."

Mr. Grevell seconded. Thc collection of the tas on au income tax basis was thc fairest way. He did not suggest mat thc revenue lie taken out of the income tax, but that every person contribute on an income basis, whether he received taxable income or uot, so that everybody whether a farmer, labourer, doctor, or

anything else, would pay towards thc upkeep of Ibo hospitals. *

Mr. Hulcl iiiiison: In other words,) nationalise thc hospitals.

Mr. Grevell: Yes.

Mr. Brown suggested an addition to the motion that they refuse to pay thc hospital rate until thc desired altera-tion came about.

This the mover and seconder would not agree to, Mr. Grevell pointing out that he had a further motion to bring on later in the meeting that a meeting of L.P.A.'s throughout thc State bo or-ganised for Exhibition week, when a de-cision could be arrived at which would have the co-operation of tho whole of

thc L.P.A.'t.

Mr. Hoonie favoured this. They could then go to the Government with the backing of the whole of thc farmers of Queensland, lt wag a matter which, re-quired organisation, and he thought Hie motion in its present form would serve the purpose until the time arrived.

The Chairman thought thc motion in its present form was lacking in some-ta ing, and did not show what line of action was intended to bring about thc remedy. He favoured the addition nskod for by Mr. Brown, and suggested it lie made nu amendment, lie pointed out the decision would be referred to

all district W.A.'n before being put into action, and if they were liot in favour of it thev could vote against it. _

MT. Brown moved nu nniendment ac-cordingly, and said mention had been made that this linc of action was too drastic. He referred them to the time when rntoou cotton was banned, and to thc recently-enacted Water Act. Thc farmers took à firm stand in these mat-ters, and refused to comply with the Government's demands. What did they pct ? The regulations were amended, und they gained their ends. And thc same would apply in this instance if they stood firm. (Hear, hear).

Mr. Blackman seconded.

Mr. Boome would compromise. If the amendment, were withdrawn he would add to-his motion (lint "if the Act were not amended the whole of tho farming community would be organised, and Mould refuse to pay."

This was not suitable to the mover nnd seconder of thc amendment, which, on being put to the meeting, was earried, ns follows:

'"Thal a further protest be entered against the incidence of thc bo.-pila' tax. and request that same lie collected on an income fax basis. Falling this, that wc refuse to pay further tax tuiti! the Act. is amended as requested."

FUTCRE OF ORGANISATION".

Byrnestown 1..P.A.: "That levy be increased to Jd. in the £."

In dealing with this motion, Mr. Gre-vel! pointed out tho difficulty his brandi, in common with others, lind been faced with in securing sullieieiit funds to cam on willi. Their membership fee was ."i?., with a total enrolment of .16. O it of that, uunt'ic!'. over thc period since thc incept ¡on of the movement, there MUS only au average of about, eight who paid (hat aiiioiiul. Thc others had gone sent. free. With the passing out of the Council of Agriculture they now found they had no funds with »hieb to curly on'with, and the levy previously mad

by the Council hud been dropped. Th" idea ill moving the motion was to in crease the levy collected by tile Coun-

cil nf Agrieiiiluic. line surplus to be I refunded In L.P.A.'-. ll nil of the pic ¡lineéis paid the fees. iL would bc found

that !lil. ur I.-, won).I bc sullieieiit.

curry orr with, but. willi only n few en ! thusiasts. the amount was fairly In :v.

¡ Ills branch's. ,ihj,.er «. lo make .11 I producéis contribute, and the metre .1 t outlined ii, ihe motion »as lin- on!

i Way. In many places the 1..P.A. » .. i the oui,- public body, und it had I"

I nirry ont nm nv duties which caused :. ' ^rcal deal of expense. What was milli , require,) now was io do away with Mic

present ..\,-t, au,] introduce one by which they would be able lo enl'uree a leg,il lew and enforce payment.

Mr. Dimmick said th- old sj,ten.

was not, ni. ¡ill niiti.f'neioiy. He in lt aliced the paymonl to sn-rr-lnri... which wu*, prior lo the «Iud it ion . .Ibe Council of Agriculture, lived nt lo ! lier meeting. When an increase na

asked for a reply was icceivcd Iron, j an officer, who in all probability dir

j less work tlinn tbs branch secretaries

ind was receiving tome hundreds of pounds per year, that an increase could not be granted on account of ibe expense. The only way he could see waa for thc organisation to register «mJer tlie Act similar to thc trade unions, when they would bc itt a position to strike levies and enforce payment. Any fxcess over requirements could be utilis-ed in establishing a bank and insurance company. If they were registered they could, for instance, go to thc butter fac-tory, and say a supplier« cream was not to be taken until thc levy had been paid. That was thc only way oat of the difficulty-make it compulsory thät nil producers bc members. Every man out his way would join readily if it was made compulsory, but not other-

wise.

The Chairman said he had licen study-ing the position for some time, and there had been nothing but chaos with thc Council of Agriculture from the be-ginning to end. ff they were going to continue as nu active organisation thc time had arrived when every producer must bc a member. (Ilcar, heal). If they would not gin- their moral siijipor:,

and attend meetings they would hat their financial support. He favoured tl suggestion that thc organisation be rei istcrcd, as outlined by Mr. Dimmic ¡with a compulsory membership fee o say, £1 Is. If that were done, the VToot. millar branch, instead of having a men bership of about 40, would have 200 < :>00 members. In the whole of Queen land there were 37,000 to 40,000 pr« duecrs. If, say, there were 30,000,

sum of about ¿27,000 could be put asic each year, after allowing brauch fi I or 6s. per member for expenses, to 1 I used for the purpose of establishing

rural bank or insurance fund. The tin: had long passed when an orgaivisothj such Be theirs could bc of any usc wit! out compulsion. Ile understood tbci

was a movement on foot to create

Dairymen's Union, but to his mind tin would )je of little use, as it catered ft only one section, and many produeei engaged in mixed fanning would pos'ib! escape contributing, but would reap tl benefit. But if one big organisais wore formed it could later be difsecte into various branches, and each scetio of the iudustry would bo covered.

Mr. Grcvell thought thc scheme out lined was an excellent one, and state that, as the levy had ceosed since tli motion was sent along from the Byrnci tow« branch, he would suggest tile mt j tiou bc emended to read as follows I "That a compulsory ltvy of £1 ls. b

struck on all producers." This wa also a matter that could be dealt wit

at a State conference.

Mr. Blackburn favoured every pra docer holding a "ticket," not of £1 ls but £1 10s. But how wcrc they goitij to have this brought about ? They ha< nu bend, and considerable orgauisatioi was necc6snry. That was a difficult; to be overcome. The present voluntar; system was no U6C, and there was no a farmer in Queensland who was nol able to pay a levy of 30s. a year.

Mr. Dimmick pointed out that an? two of the Commodity Boards coule call a meeting of the Agricultura Council at any time, which could da tin. ! organising work.

j Mr Grevcll urged (hat some inline

. dialc action was necessary. In view

of thc absence of fund» it was just

I a question with some branches whclhci j they continued to function or not, nm! ? thc machinery should bc set in uiotioi j in order to prevent the organisation £,')?

¡Jig to piece-.

Mr. Boonie i|not cd thc Woodniill.il branch, nf which he was thc chnirm.in ( One could sec apathy i'll over lt. A

few enthusiasts lind kept the 'movement f/oing, but were now getting tired ol it, and gradually dropping out. It wa; no use placing «Il of tho blame on thc t Connel! of Agriculture ; it was tho fault

of the producers themselves. When thc ?mimili meeting of thcWoolmillarL.P.A. was held last Saturday, lie went around the street interviewing producers, and a .-king them to conic along. Hut ncnrlv "ll of them hod some excuse or another, and the nt 1 nvluli,c was small. "They ??au find time to cn.~i|> nimm thc stree'.," added thc speaker, "lint cannot spare ? an hum a monti) to attend n meeting

of their own organisation." Compulsion 1 ' h

\)

is

waa a hard word, bul to make thc or ganisution effective il must bc brough into fon-e. ile instanced tbo Butte Hoard, which w¡is only l'uni -lionlng »ilia factorily because it wa-, compulsory, me lind lin- law behind it. Ile wau quit satisfied tlut under tho |>rcsciit systen it was only the beginning of the end «v tho urganinulion.

After H little, further discussion "i similar lines. Mr. ("¡revell moved :"That we urge an aineudineut of (lu Q.r. oifjanisation, to próvido for du compulsory enrolment of all primarproducer*, with a levy of 30s. per au mim, 15 per cent, of such levy to be. rc turned to Ul'.A.'s for local expenses, :i. per cent, to go to a reserve fund foi general purposes, and 50 pct cent, tx form a nucleus for a rural credit bani and rural insurance fund."

Seconded by Mr. Blackburn, and car ried unanimously.

THE WATER ACT.

Woodmillar L.P.A.-"That a most, em-phatic protest be entered against the Water Act, and absolutely refuse to register."

Mr. Roome strongly condemned tje Act, and stated that at a recent meet-ing held at Gayndah it was decided that they absolutely refuse to register their water facilities. A lot of farm-ers were under the impression that because of registration fee had been withdrawn, everything in the garden was lovely. But the regulations were still there, and farmers who were under that impression would receive a rude awakening. Only formal registration had to be made, but they would find that if they furnished the particulars asked for they wonld give the Go-vernment an opportunity to later on impose the charges. The dan-ger was still there, whereas if they re-fused to register the onus was on the Government to get the particulars, and prove that the farmers put down wells or sunk dams, etc. Once they gave the information they were at the mercy of the Government. Continuing, Mr. Roome said that ii a man sunk a dam, and after wailing six months, rain cami down from the heavens, the Govern ment had the cheek to come along ant! say it was theirs. The excuse by th« Government was that they wanted to get a survey of the water facilities which was absolutely ridiculous. Tb« whole tiling was a farce, and an ezcusi to impose a tax. The only way waa to refuse to register, which he hoped would be done by members of all branches, and [also refuse to pay the tax.

Mr. Dimmick eaid that £3,000,000 had been expended on the irrigation aroa "up there" (presumably referring tc Castle Creek), which was nothing bot n

farce. Kow the Government had to im-pose a tax on thc whole of the farmers throughout the State to find tho money. He had worked it out, and found that the Government had to get £12 10s. per acre of the land. They should stand firm, and refuse to register or pay thc

i tax.

i The motion was carried,

j A motion from Beid's Creek L.P.A. that the Gayndah Dairy Association bf requested to subsidise the Bald's Creels cream carter, was ruled by the Chair-man to bc a matter for the suppliers .nd thc Association. »

A further motion from Beid's Creek W.A.. that the Bail way Department be requested to have the Ideraway railway station classed as a, staff sta-tion, or, in the alternative, that an official be placed there to carry out thc duties, was carried. It was stated that there was a considerable quantity of produce sent from that station. There being no person to supervise or check the weight of produce consigned, the Commissioner accepted no responsibility, consequently if their was a shortage at thc other end the person consigning the -produce suffered. Several instances had occurred of bite, but no responsibility would be accepted by the Commissioner. : The motion was carried.

I Other motions passed were » fol-

lows :

"That this conference requests that I a Commission be appointed to go thor-oughly into the workings of the Agri' cultura] Sank Act generally."

"That the secretary be empowered to arrange with the Gayndah- "Guette-' i for the printing of the most important

questiout dealt with by this confer-ence, for The purpose of circulating same among thc most active of tho L.P.A.'s, the branches represented to bc responsible for thc cost of ssme."

"That a foot-note be added to the circulars, asking thc branches to be represented at a State-wide conference of LP.A.'s, to bc held in Brisbane during exhibition week, at a .time and place to bc arranged."

"That thc Butter Boord, Broom Millet Board, and Cotton Board bc requested to arrange tile conference, and also to convene a meeting of thc Council of Agriculture, to be present at 6iich con-ference." s

'.That copies of resolutions passed at this conference bc forwarded to the State member for thc district, and anv dealing with' Federal matters to Mr. E. B. C. Corser, M.H.F.."

"That thc Minister for Trade and Customs, and also thc Federal member, bc requested to take action in thc in-terests of thc public health and the dairying industry, in having prohibited the manufacture' and importation «-f

margarine."