Resignation called bonus by party

Press, 28 May 1984, Page 1

Resignation called bonus by party

The resignation of the New Zealand Party’s Tamaki candidate, Mr Gordon Dryden, was a “bonus” rather than a major rift in the party, the president, Mr Malcolm McDonald, said yesterday. Mr Dryden resigned his candidacy on Saturday after the party leader, Mr Bob Jones, called for his resignation. Earlier Mr Dryden had claimed there were errors in the draft budgets of the party’s economic policy, released last week. “This matter concerns one of our members only,” said Mr McDonald in Christchurch yesterday. “With the thousands of members that the party has, it is of no consequence. “Unfortunately Gordon is disliked by many members, which is unwarranted in my opinion. However, as this is the case I am not taking exception to his resignation.” Mr Dryden’s comments about the economic policy were “grossly misleading,” Mr McDonald said. “Mr Dryden is not a

qualified economist and is therefore somewhat out of his depth in this area.” The policy had been costed as accurately as possible by party economic advisers. It was impossible to be exact on such large costings, and economists’ figures. would also differ from individual interpretations. No leading economist had come up with Mr Dryden’s

figures, said Mr McDonald. Dr Ewen McCann, chairman of the party’s economic policy committee and the party’s economic adviser, said yesterday that he could not confirm that the figures used in the economic policy were correct. When asked if because of his position in the party, he had helped devise these figures, he replied that this was "not a valid inference.”