NATIONAL PARTY

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 379, 10 March 1937, Page 6

NATIONAL PARTY

A UNITED FRONT.

; LAST ELECTION DISASTER i Farmers’ Difficulties Stressed j Press Association —Copyright. : Whangarei, March 9. j The necessity for ’the New Zea lam. | National Party to have 59 candidates i chosen before the end of t.his year ■ vias pointed out by the Leader of the . i Opposition, the Hon. A. Hamilton, in I an atldi-est to fi-iends and supporters I in Whangarei. ■ "It. is time we got together and took 1 stock to see bow we can remove, the I cause of the disaster of the last rfiec- ■ tion,” said Mr Haimilton. "Politics is . ■ a serious business and has been taki en. too lightly in the past. There is (no more important business in New j Zealand titan who is to govern the j Dominion. We have a new party with : at ne'V' constitution, and there is now Ino Reform, United or Democratic (party in existence. Under-The new j constitution the. people choose the i candidates and writle the pnliev. an ’ tit will be the duty of members of ■ Parliament to choose a leader. “Tax, Borrow and Spend.”

“With such a strong Labour Party in power and with such a. strong demand for a United party in Qpposi tion, we. must build up a. poficy aci ceptaible to the majority of the rest •of the people. We imust not aTionv any | cleavage between town and country. las the, interests of both, are interwov j en. Tax, borrow, spend appears to be ; the policy of the* Labour Party.” j Mr Hamilton said the last electiion j was a farce and quoted figures sTTtjw-

ing that a large number of members of the present Parliament were elected on a minority vote. Freedom of individuality vias an estsmtial point in the new National Party’s constitution. with a spirit, of toleration so as to weld all sections into one group. The speaker attacked the system of I guaranteed price® and said that he i and farmers generally believed that. ; as guaranteed prices meant! a guaran- | teed minimum price, ths, farmer:, j would get any yield that th.i market 1 brought above that minimum price. I The present system was nothing i more than the system in operation 1 during the war. when the price v'is | arranged. Under the present system | the farmer' had no chance. Farmers’ i unions were askinlg for a. cbmpensat- ■ ing price, which meant obtaining pri- ' ces of equality. They had every reaI son for asking for equality in ord ir Ito get the costs of production. In his ■ opinion, the roundest way was to I keep costs to a reasonable limit. I The farmers were up against a dit- ' ficult problem. They 'v.tre facing the ■ drift of labour to the cities, and high ; rate of sustenance and the payment iof 19s to 20s. 1 a day on the- public I works, compared with the 10s a day : for farm labour.