POLITICAL ACTION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21113, 5 June 1943, Page 4

POLITICAL ACTION

FARMERS’ ATTITUDE MAY JOIN NATIONALISTS CRITICISM OF MINISTER (Pit.) INVERCARGILL, June 5. A hint of possible political action by affiliation with the National Party was given by the Dominion president of the Farmers’ Union. Mr. W. W. Mulholland, in an address to the Southland provincial conference ol the.-union yesterday.

During the last year the Government had dealt unsympathetically with a number of farmers’ problems, lie .said. Nothing had done more to unsettle the farmers than the tour oi the Minister of Agriculture to defend the Government’s actions about the ; ucrease ol 15 per cent in wool prices granted bv the. British Government. The Minister had trumpeted from a dozen platforms that the voolgrowei: were receiving (12 per cent above prewar prices. A little investigation did not bear out the Minister s assertions. The Minister's tour had, perhaps, been designed, less to justify past actions than tc pave the way for future actions. " , _ . As •chairman jof the Farmers reeloration. Mr. Mulholland said, lie had received a communication which had caused him much concern, because it could be taken to mean that the future price of wool would be less than what it was on December 15 last. He had asked the Minister for an explanation.

Mr. Mulholland said the Dominion executive line! recently passed a resolution expressing no confidence in the Government as one which offered any hope of the economic future for the farming community. It had set up a committee to prepare a policy acceptable to the farming community and to approach poltical parties, and oarticulaily the National Party, which might be prepared to support that nolicy. Several meetings with the National Party had been held and that party’s agricultural policy approached very closely to that of the Farmers Union. Delegates at the enext annual conference would probably be facet, with making the most momentous decision for the future of the farming community.