THE COUNTRY PARTY.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 221, 17 September 1924, Page 4

THE COUNTRY PARTY.

It looks as if the Country Party was going to be a party, or at least an attempt, and not merely a centre of a Circle of whirling talk. Undeterred by the opposition of the South, the Auckland Farmers' Union has decided to put up Country Party candidates for ten country seats. "The view was generally expressed that both Franklin and Kaipara should be excluded." Why? Is it because it is considered hopeless to try to make an impression on the MasSey and Coates strongholds? Ck is it that Mr. Massey and Mr. Coates are considered to be farmers and friends of farmers? This may be the Tea3on, though if the Union contests ten country electorates it must oppose other members who are farmers. But is the real reason this: that the Union, for all its independence, really quails under the Prime Minister's eye? This, however, is a side issue. The important fact is that the Country Party promises to be a serious enterprise. It is also an amusing one. The movement, so it is! stated, is not designed to oppose the existing parties, but to secure "an inde- : pendent mouthpiece in the House." How the Country Party is going to get its candidates elected without opposing the other parties is not explained. Certainly, if these candidates go to the poll, there will be more confusion in politics. The real humour of the situation, however, lies in this earnest endeavour to give the farmer more representation in a House which he already dominates. You would think, by the Way some supporters Of the new movement talk, that the farmers in the House were a' handful of "shrinking ' violets," whereas they are the largest . class, and are not in the least backward about, stating grievances and demanding rights. Witness, for example, the attitude of the House towards the moratorium.