“POLITICAL DODGE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 758, 3 September 1929, Page 8

“POLITICAL DODGE”

MR. POLSON REPLIES TO CRITICS ‘ UNION IS NON-PARTY” Press Association WANGANUI, Monday. “It is a political dodge,” said Mr. \V. J. Poison. M.P., in reply to a qne s . tion regarding what he intended to do in connection with agitation against him by certain branches of the Farmers' Union. “The Fanners’ Union is a non-party political organisation,” he said. “It contains all shades of political opinion. One subprovincial president is a Labour member in Parliament, and a provincial president is the Reform Party’s Whir. In the past the late Sir James Wilson was both Dominion presiden* and i member of Parliament. “In my case I have put aside any possible opportunities for political preferment in order to remain an Independent so that I may do justice in the House to my fellow farmers without being tied to any party,” continued Mr. Poison. “The suggestion that the presidency of the union is only compatible with support of Mr. Coates is one which the farming community as a whole will not subscribe to. I am as strongly opposed as any man in the House ‘o piling taxes on the farmer, and when the opportunity occurs and the legislation is brought down I -will not hesitate to do my duty. But lam in favour of bursting up very large estates, provided they are suitable for settlement.”