FARMERS AND POLITICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 September 1920, Page 5

FARMERS AND POLITICS.

ORGANISATION ADVOCATED.

Waoganui, Sept. H

The question as to whether fanners should found a political party so that they may have direct representation in Parliament was discussed at a meeting of the sub-provincial executive of. the Farmers' Union by Mr. G. A. Boyce, of Auckland. He .prefaced his remarks by referring to the grave danger that threatened the farmers of the Dominion during the next two years owing to the organisation of the Labor Party. He stated that fortunately at present the Labor organisation only aggregated about eighty-eight thousand, but that, section was steadily moving to get control of the Government of the country. An a Queenslander, he said he knew something of a Labor Government. He instanced cases where farmers on Crown Innds had spent their last shilling during the period of the drought to endeavor to keep going, and when they could not pay rent the Labor Government had turned round and ordered them to get out. He maintained that if thfey let Labor pet the upper hand in this Dominion, and capture the Government the farmers would have a taste that they would not get out of their mouths for a long time. The farmer, he continued, had three factors before him at present, namely, the producer, labor man, and middleman. The only way to get out and light the Labor Party was to eliminate the middlei-man. He maintained that the union should have a clear-cut definite policy, just the same as the ]jabor side had a definite objective in view. Labor was moving toward that objective all the time. On the other hand, tiie Farmers' Union had no objective, and had not kid down a definite policy, The farmers should control selling, buying, and manufacturing agencies. If it paid a private company to start manufacturing to supply farmers, that industry could just as well be taken over by the farmers themselves. Personally he did not see how the farmers could keep out of politics. He advised the union to strive to get the dairy man and also the small farmers into their ranks, and to get the dairy companies also to co-operate with them. He thought the executive should send out circulars setting out the position and pointing out the danger that threatened. Personally he thought a political objective would bo the best for the union to adopt.