A FARMERS’ PARTY.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 June 1922, Page 5

A FARMERS’ PARTY.

THE PROPOSAL SUPPORTED. ENTHUSIASM AT AUCKLAND. UNION PRESIDENT IGNORED. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. The proposed Country Party was discussed by the farmers’ conference to-day. Mr. W. J. Polson (Dominion president) said the slogan of the union was principles and not parties, and the official view would be hostile to those forming the Country Party. The union was also opposed to class representation. At present the farmers in New Zealand were organising as they never had done before, and new branches were being formed all over the Dominion. If the union was to be successful they must adhere to the platform and not take part in party politics. He asked the meeting not to shipwreck the union. Already he had received letters from valued members, who said they would resign if the union entered party politics. He was not there as a supporter of the Reform Government, but he asked if they would gain anything by weakening the present Government. They might do that without gaining any benefit for farmers as a whole. If they had a party, «t was no use trying to be independent; it must either oppose or support the present Government. He asked them to remember the danger of breaking up an organisation which was doing so much in the interests of farmers. Some discussion ensued, and the conference carried unanimously, amid cheers, a motion approving of the action of the executive in forming a Country Party and re-affirming the decisions of two previous conferences to take political action to secure adequate recognition of the demands of the farming community.