FARMERS’ PROTEST

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 December 1945, Page 3

FARMERS’ PROTEST

STATE BOYCOTT OPPOSED. TIMARU, December 10. “I do not support it,” said the President of the South Canterbury Farmers’ Union (Mr. J. Dempsey), when invited to comment on the Wellington report that a plan to boycott the State bank and other State trading institutions was being put into effect by “action committees” of the Farmers’ Union, to register the Union’s disapproval of the recent legislation, and in particular the Electoral Amendment Act, which involved the abolition of the country quota. “I am sorry that this has gone into print,” continued Mr. Dempsey. “I do not hold with it. If everything else had been tried without success, we may have had to resort to such action, but everything else has not been tried. There could be much more co-operation and willingness to learn to understand. We see our own side and we should see the other fellows’ too. I do not like the methods being adopted in this policy of non-co-operation with the Government. Certainly the abolition of the country quota was unfair and undemocratic. If it had been made an is- z sue at an election and had been supported by the majority of tlie people I would not have minded.”