18 OCTOBER 1913, Page 2

What, then, is the remedy ? The remedy is to

knock off the existing chains on agriculture and not to impose more; to leave it freer, not to add more restraints. The first thing to do is to free it from the special taxation in the form of rates which it is now singled out to endure, and which is endured by no other industry in the country. The buildings in which businesses are conducted are rated, and so are the buildings in which agriculture is conducted, but beyond that agriculture pays a special and separate and very heavy tax on its raw material, the land. Again, one of the ways of getting better housing conditions for the labourer is by knocking off the shackles imposed on building by a series of ridiculous by-laws. This may seem a small matter, but in truth it is a very big one.