DOMINION’S NEED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20259, 29 May 1940, Page 6

DOMINION’S NEED

UNITY OF FACTIONS PREMIER’S OPPORTUNITY COALITION INFLUENCE FARMERS’ UNION VIEW (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. “No statesman in New Zealand ever had a greater opportunity to do really great actions than the Prime Minister, tiie Hon. P. Fraser, to-day,” said the Dominion president of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, Mr. W. W. Mulholland, at a dinner given by the Auckland provincial conference of the union last evening. “I call upon him to step forward and give us the lead we need and unite the nation, I do not think he will fail us.” Throughout New Zealand, Mr. Mulholland said, there was a clear call for leadership. If there was some disappointment that it had not been •given before it might also be said that this failure merely reflected the failure of the people themselves until recently to take war as seriously as they should have. Now we were standing four-square across the path of the very demons of hell, we must put,aside petty differences and stand shoulder to shoulder. Council Not Enough It was not enough for a council to be added to the long list of councils which merely clogged the machinery. Parties and wishes must be discarded. Our leaders must look only to that which could best inspire the confidence of the whole community. A lead thus given would be generously followed by all. The feeling in New Zealand was not to condone any failure Mr. Fraser now had the opportunity, but if he did not take it he would have to face the same position as Mr. Neville Chamberlain in Britain. Addresses were also delivered by speakers representative of botli town and country. Mr. W. J. Truscott, the president of the Auckland Manufacturers’ Association, said that a party of 15 men had informed the Colonial Ammunition Company that they were prepared to work six or eight hours nightly without pay after finishing their ordinary work. He believed 99 per cent of New Zealanders only needed to be told what to do. Railwayman’s Offer Mr. J. Cameron, the Auckland secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, said that personally he was prepared to work 20 hours a week for nothing. Colonel Adams, representing the Slieepowners’ Federation, said that farmers could increase production greatly if given a lead in co-ordina-tion and outside help. The formation of a Government with a Cabinet representing a national union of all interests was urged in a remit passed at the annual conference of the Auckland Provincial Farmers’ Union. The remit also expressed the opinion that a War Council without full executive powers would be neither - acceptable nor effective.