THE FARMERS' UNION

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 126, 30 May 1935, Page 7

THE FARMERS' UNION

REORGANISATION MOVE

POWER TO HEADQUARTERS

(By Telegraph—Press Association. >

CHRISTCHURCH, May 29.

The reorganisation of the New Zealand Farmers' Union along lines that would make the central executive a more effective force was forecast today by the national president, Mr. W. J. Poison, M.P., in a talk to the North Canterbury executive.

In the early days the union was split up into branches and provinces more or less in control of their own destinies, with headquarters as a figurehead, said Mr. Poison. It was felt now that headquarters should be given power to have more initiative and some measure of control over the provinces, some of which were now more or less of a liability to farming as a whole than an asset. The reorganisation would take that into consideration.

"We have to become a more effective force in the field of general politics," said Mr. Poison. "The whole organisation must be bound into one unit, so that it may take a live fighting interest in affairs of the industry. This is only under discussion so far. We find that sometimes we put up resolutions, to Parliament that perhaps in our calmer moments we would not have insisted on, but where we put up a soundlyargued case we invariably gain our point sooner or later."