Values leader asked to stay

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34104, 17 March 1976, Page 22

Values leader asked to stay

C.V Z. Associotron) WELLINGTON. March 16. A Wellington group of Values Party members wants to persuade the party’s leader. Mr Reg Clough, to remain as the leader. Mr Clough, a 29-year-old Auckland lawyer, announced today that he would relinquish the leadership at (he party's Easter conference in Auckland. “The strain of being leader is just too much. ” he said in Auckland today “There comes a time when you can’t make the sacrifices anyi more.” Mr Clough has been

leader of the party since August. 1974, and tonight a spokesman for the Wellington group said they believed there was total support for i his leadership within the party, and an increasing respect for his abilities by the general public. He said the group had sent a letter to Mr Clough, urging him to delay a final decision until possibilities to be discussed at the Easter conference had been fully explored. “Looking back, we realise we asked our leaders to carry an almost impossible burden last year,” said the spokesman. “It’s a miracle they survived at all. “We made a mistake byexploiting them in our drive to achieve electoral results, but it should be possible to correct that. “Among the proposals we will consider at the Easter conference is the appointment of one or more 1 ull-tinie party workers, and there is even a proposal that the I leader be paid a salary , plus expenses. “Reg Clough could not wish to work full-time in that sense and let his law practice suffer, but it should be possible to get one full-time person working with him in Auckland to ease the administrative burdens of the ' office.”