POLITICAL ORGANISATION

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 18, 21 July 1939, Page 8

POLITICAL ORGANISATION

(To-the Editor.)

Sir, —Having been associated with the Kuku farmers in the • successful .fight to retain their land^l support the contention by ."Small Farmer" of Hutt Valley in Tuesday's "Evening Post" that "the action of the party behind the scenes outside of the House should get down to tin tacks and put at the head of affaij; people with force and driving power instead of making it a close corporation."

In the "Evening Post" on Wednesday, Mr. Howard Jones,, hon. secretary of the Levin branch of the National Party, takes "Small Farmer" to task ahd states that he received a communication from the head office of the National Party offering any assistance necessary, but the Kuku farmers "were insistent that they did not want politics to enter into the matter at all." Admittedly the vital principle involved in the threatened eviction of Kuku farmers is above party politics, but the point is that had the national organisation been alert it would have been in a position to warn the Kuku farmers and fight their cause on broad issues bearing on the security of farmers and others •' throughout the length and -jbreadth of the Dominion. Furthermore*, when it was first suggested" taking the land of the Hutt growers, a public meeting of protest by consumers should have been organised and held in the Wellington Town Hall, hut nothing whatever was done, and the Hutt grbwers were left to it. These facts surely offer proof that no Parliamentary party can ever hope to make headway unless it has behind it a vigorous and active organisation working along lines to capture the confidence of those who are 'today seeking a political beacon of hope. Social gatherings only make. play of the serious side of politics, and merely gratify the aspirations of a section; hence the possibility of a farmers' political party that will surely act as a warning or danger signal to' the national organisation. Is the national organisation functioning as it should? Is it not out of touch • with public opinion?—l am, etc.,

T.A.F.