Townsville Daily Bulletin (Qld. : 1907 - 1954), Friday 25 March 1927, page 9


"HUNTING US OFF THE LAND."

ROCKHAMPTON, March 18.

When the farmers and others on the land ascertained the provisions of the new Water Act, which means further taxation, there was great indignation. The first Local Producers' Associa-

tion which cosldered the new Water Tax was Kalapa, which passed the following resolution:— "That this as-sociation enters an emphatic protest against the action ot the Government in making these undue levies against the primary producers of Queensland, who have invested their capital in im-proving properties for the sole pur-pose of sustaining livelihood either by means ot watering stock or for irriga tion purposes, by this exesssive tax on water, which is certainly a tax on the progressive producer, and on unfor-tunate landholders, who have not run-ning water on their properties. That the Council of Agriculture should be written to asking it to circularise Local Producers' Associations in the State, requesting them to protest as a body, and advise the farmers to re-fuse to pay the tax; that a copy also should be sent to the Pastoralists' As-sociation, asking for any suggestions on the matter." The opinion was free-ly stressed that while the Govern-ment stated it was endeacoring to settle people on the land it was striv-ing its hardest to hunt off the land those already on it.