"THE FARMERS' PARTY."

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 167, 14 July 1908, Page 3

"THE FARMERS' PARTY."

* (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH, Monday. The demand from Ardmore for the formation of a Farmers' party in the House was the subject of some humorous cornmeat by the "Lyttelton Times" this morning. Alter indicating tho situation and the population of Ardmore, the article goes on to say: "If ttie farmers really wanted an exclusive party of their own in Parliament, the first move towards that end would have been made in Canterbury, Otago. or Wellington. The fact that the rural electors iv these larger districts have not made such a move apparently indicates that they are very well satisfied v ith the present system of representation. The truth is that the farmers are about the last people in the country who should he calling out for a enange. They have a much larger share of direct representation than have the mem'iers of any other ■calling, with the exception of the lawyers, and the journalists. In the present Parliament twenty-one of the seventysix European members are farmers, while eight others are settlers or gentlemen who probably have more or less connection with the land. The workers, labourers, and artisans have only rive or sis direct representatives, and the manufacturers and the commercial, financial, and clerical not more than seventeen or eighteen. The lawyers have nine—far more than is good for the community. ■—and the journalists live, not including a newspaper proprietor, who is not necessarily a journalist. That the farmers have turned their numerical superiority to some account may be seen from a glance at the Statute Book for any session during the past decade. They have Lad a sympathetic ministry all the time, hut they have realised the value of the big battalions, and Sir John McKenzie, Mr. Duncan, and Mr. McNab, in succession, have paid quite as much attention to their portfolios of Agriculture a3 they have to their portfolios of Lands doubtless. The simple folk; of Ardmore have been persuaded by some political busybody that their interests are being neglected in Parliament, but we fancy that by the time they learn half the truth they will be ready to admit that there is no more need for a Farmers' party in the House than there is for a Lawyers' party, or a Journalists' party."