NATIONAL PARTY VIEW ATTACKED

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31922, 25 February 1969, Page 18

NATIONAL PARTY VIEW ATTACKED

A statement from the Dominion headquarters of the National Party listing five seats it considered crucial in deciding the General Election this year was a naive assessment of the political scene, Mr T. M. F. Taylor, president of the Country Party said yesterday.

“The party’s assessment of Its probable performance in the future on the basis of past results may aptly be described as a head-in-the-sand attitude, for it is obvious it wishes to feign ignorance of the growing political reality of the Country Party which, in contesting the forthcoming election, can—and undoubtedly will—substantially alter the result,” Mr Taylor said. “No matter how it windowdresses its membership numbers, the hard fact remains that in rural and urban electorates, the National Party has lost much of the good will it once enjoyed,” he said. “In our daily dealings with people in the electorates we intend to contest next November, if not sooner, the disillusionment of many who for years have given their support, loyalty and their vote to the National Party, is now very evident.

“The farmers are sick and i tired of being forced to in- : crease production for the ■ good of the country and, in I return, to receive decreased t profits and increased indebt- ' edness for their enterprise. In 1 fact the rural attitude towards , the National Party today can ! be summed-up as follows: the • farmers were called upon by ■ the Government for succour: They responded well until • they discovered they were - the suckers. ' "None of the new planks ■ the National Party proposes ' can be regarded as adequate 1 to save the leaking ship of State unless the party is pre--1 pared to revitalise itself from 1 the ground up, abandon its ’ frustrating bureaucratic so- ’ eialist philosophy, and return 'to free enterprise policies i which will release the initia- ' tlve and productive energy of the people.”