FUSION OPPOSED

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 125, 24 November 1930, Page 8

FUSION OPPOSED

HON. A. D. M'LEOD'S WARNING

BENEFIT TO COUNTRY PARTY

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) ' TIMABU, 23rd November. Addressing a meeting of Reform supporters at Tiniaru on Saturday evening, the Hon. A. D. M'Leod made reference to the persistent cry from certain quarters for fusion of the Reform and United Parties against the forces of political Labour. Those urging such- a course, said Mr. M'Leod, were, he feared, pooif. students of contemporary political history. In Australia of recent years, largely as a result of pressure from the influential city Press and city electorates, fusion had taken place in the Commonwealth and all State Parliaments. In every instance the Country Party, "which prior to fusion had not been taken seriously, immediately became a strong an! vital force in Australian politics, and although having no such intention certainly assisted rather than ■weakened political Labours position. "Was there a likelihood of anything different happening in. New Zealand? In the North Island at least he had little hesitation in saying that fusion would bring about at tl\p next election in rural electorates a crop of Country Party candidates who would poll a very large number of votes. The plain, truth, said Mr. M'Leod, was' .that here, no more than in Australia, with or without reason, farmers and numbers of small country people did not trust the motives which lay behind city electoral intentions, and no greater blow was struck in recent years against Reform than the assiduous spreading by opponents of the tale among farmers that as a party Reform ■was bound hand and foot to city, in.terests,