PARTY FEELING

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 144, 21 June 1933, Page 8

PARTY FEELING

i\OT SO BITTER NOW HON. W. OOWNIE STEWART'S OPINION <By Telegraph.) j (Special to the "Evening Post.") j DUNEDIN, This Day. When question time came after the Hon. W. Downie Stewart's address to young farmers taking part-in an educational course, he was called upon to reply to a large number of questions. Subject to certain 'qualifications, lie said ho vas in favour of party, politics, lie believed a good deal of the old bitterness had gone, out of interparty feeling, and that the rural parties, being more tolerant than they used to be, were more ready to accept ideas from one an other.'1 ' j 110 agreed that the number of representatives in Parliament could quite ■well be reduced, but ho doubted if there would bo any great having in public expenditure if such a policy were carried out. Country members wore up against a reduction because of the big distances they already had to cover in their electorates, bn't in theso days of quick motor transport ho did not deem this tho big obstacle it once was. 110 was of tho opinion that there were too many local bodies, but it was a difficult matter to reduce them. Now, however, there was a tendency for amalgamation, especially among river boards and road boards.