FARMERS’ UNION SPLIT

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 31, 31 October 1932, Page 10

FARMERS’ UNION SPLIT

Free Trade the Cause AUCKLAND SECESSION Dominion Special Service. Auckland, October 28. “There is no ill-feeling over ‘Farming First.’ That is only a peg on which to hang their complaints,” said the secretary of the Auckland provincial branch of the Farmers’ Union, Mr. A. E. Robinson, in commenting upon the decision of the executive of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union. “The Auckland body has done its best to remain in the union,” he said. “The real bone of contention is the strong free trade attitude of Auckland province versus the protectionist feeling in parts of the South Island, crystallised, probably, by the free trade exhibit which Auckland province transferred to Wellington just as the exhilfition opened.” Mr. Robinson said that this feeling was of old standing. “Auckland has frequently been told to get out, biit has always resisted seceding movements,” he said. “Voting power has been another bone of contention. Auckland, for instance, is represented at the present conference in Wellington by a maximum of two out of probably an attendance of about thirty, despite the fact that membership in Auckland is about one-third of the Dominion membership. It was not so much a question of secession as of friendly severance. Although the question of severance had not yet been considered, by the provincial executive, he expressed surprise that the committee’s report should have been allowed to get into the newspapers, since it was a rule of the union that all internal affairs were not for open discussion.