COUNTRY PARTY’S AIMS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 477, 5 October 1928, Page 13

COUNTRY PARTY’S AIMS

WATCHING FARMERS’ INTERESTS FRANKLIN CAMPAIGN OPENS (From Our Own Correspondent) PUKEKOHE, To-day. The first shot in connection with the Country Party’s campaign in Franklin was fired at a meeting of about 90 electors held at Pukekohe last evening. Mr. G. S. Parven, Deputy-Mayor, presided. The claims of free trade were advanced by Lieutenant-Colonel S. J. E. Closey, of Papatoetoe, who contended that the farmers of the Dominion could never prosper under protection, which was only a cheap and underhand method of obtaining revenue. The industrial nations had experienced most trying times, and why New Zealand was endeavouring to adopt manufacturing industries when the facilities were not available, was difficult to conceive. Manufacturing was being assisted in the Old World and in America by mass production, large institutions and district specialisation The “barter” system of exchanging goods was still in vogue, although moneycurrency was used, and 150 years ago it was proved that it was the only method by which a nation could prosper. In future the Dominion would have to specialise in the highest grades of butter, wool and mutton. In concluding, Colonel Closey cited cases of extreme hardship in the King Country, where farmers, after years of labour, had to walk off their land owing to the high costs and lack of finance. Of the one and a-half million pounds expended on buildings within a-half mile radius of the Auckland Post Office, one million should have been used for the development of King Country land from the Pirongia mountains to Alokau. “There has been more anguish In the King Country during the last ten years than from the shelling in the war,” he added. The secretary of the Farmers’ Union, Air. A. E. Robinson, advanced the platform of the party, and claimed that the Liberal, Reform or Labour Parties had never looked to the farmers’ interest, hence the reason for contesting seats. No attempt had been made to right the wrong of robbing the producer by excess taxation. Quoting from the returns furnished by the Department of Industries and Commerce, the speaker said those engaged in dairy farming each earned an average of £4 6s a week, which after working costs had been deducted amounted to only £1 17s a week. The country was not one-third profitably occupied, and what was required was a good land settlement scheme, which was one of the planks of the party. It also advocated a group settlement, not, however, on the lines of the soldiers’ settlement; the nationalisation of roads; an agricultural bank conducted on a proper basis and money obtained from outside of the Dominion; less education and better facilities for country schools; the modernisation of defence methods; the centralisation of hospitals and more maternity homes: and the equalising of the rural vote within that of towns. The candidate for Franklin, Air. K. O. Aiellsop, gave a short address, and said he would be addressing electors’ meetings at an early date. Asked as to whether he favoured the removal of the embargo upon the importation of Australian potatoes at the present juncture, Colonel Closey said there should not be any duty on foodstuffs coming into the country. Votes of thanks were accorded the speakers.