GENERAL ELECTION

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 149, 5 April 1930, Page 4

GENERAL ELECTION

MID-CANTERBURY CANDIDATE. MR R. W. WIGHTMAX. Mr Robert W. Wightman, of Mount Hutt, Methven, will be an Independent Labour candidate for Mid-Canter-bury at the next Parliamentary general election. Mr Wightman, who is a wellknown farmer, stood as an Independent candidate at the last election. He left this week for England, and will visit also Scotland and Ireland, with the idea of studying economic and labour conditions. He will return to New Zealand in about six months' time, or earlier if a general election is precipitated. "The only man in New Zealand who can solve the unemployment problem is the man on the land," stated Mr Wightman in an interview before leaving 'the Dominion. "Our largest consumers of our produce are those people overseas, and. as our greatest asset is our workers abroad, J am leaving New Zealand to study their working conditions. I will visit, among other places, the Smithfield market, the Lancashire cotton mills, and industries in Scotland and Ireland."

One of the main planks of Mr Wightman's political platform is the establishment of agricultural banks, which, he contends, will reduce the rate of interest, and indirectly the cost of production and of. living. He states that the agricultural banks could take over existing private mortgages and issue agricultural notes for farming purposes.