ELECTION CAMPAIGN

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 24 October 1928, Page 11

ELECTION CAMPAIGN

LATE EDITION

REFORM’S LAND POLICY. MB. W. J. POLSON’S CRITICISM. REPLY BY HON. A. D. McLEOD. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CARTERTON, Oct. 24. Tlxe Hon. A. I>. McLeod, speaking at Pirinoa last night, made the following reply to an attack by, Mr. 4V. J. Poison, the opposition candidate for. tlie Stratford seat. “Air. Poison returns to the attack with his usual adroitness avoiding the issues. Since speaking in the Waikato some time ago, I have stated time and again that I will withdraw unresedvedly everything I have said regarding the Farmers’ Union participating as a union in party politics, provided I have his assurance that certain organisers of the union mentioned by me are not, and have not been, in receipt of paymets from the Dominion organisation during, say, the past twelve months, when they have been actively working against Reform candidates in different parts of the Dominion. “Further, he persists in his stupid statement that four million acres of land have gone back into fern, scrub, and second growth during Reform’s term of office, and now he endeavours to wriggle out of an untruthful, creditdestroying assertion, by quoting tlie ‘Lyttelton Times,’ ‘Christchurch Press’ or Auckland ‘Herald.’ I have quoted figures from official sources on several occasions which prove that his statement is absolutely incorrect, and he now aggravates the position by making a bald and ridiculous assertion that one million acres have been reverting annually. Since 1912 three million acres of unoccupied land have been added to the unoccupied lands of the Dominion, and of this 875,000 acres have been selected since 1917. Mr. Poison knows, perhaps better than anyone else, that this accretion was not made from cleared country or from land capable of carrying stock, but from land almost entirely of fern, scrub, or bush country, and the fact that the area of this class of land has not materially increased shows that instead of going back, the position, taking the Dominion as a whole, has been well maintained. Yet Air. Poison blindly persists in a statement which has liad a very detrimental effect by causing the withdrawal of investment money from rural securities.’’

WESTLAND SEAT.

HOKITIKA, Oet. 24. Air Thomas E. Y. iSoddon, the sitting member, has been nominated for the Westland seat iu the United Party’s interests.