The Hawera Star. TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1929. RUMANIAN PEASANT PARTY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 15 January 1929, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1929. RUMANIAN PEASANT PARTY.

Delivered every evening by 6 o’clock in Hawera, Manaia, Norznanby. "Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Waverley, Mokoia, Whakamara, Ohangai, Meremere, Fraser Road, and Ararata.

The accession .to power of the peasant in Eumania marks the beginning, not tho end, of ihis struggle for political control. He ka(s been ten years making a start, for the war enlightened ‘Mm oni the value of the vote,, bult he ha® learned in (that decade what right motives, concerted action and persistency can do. Over a long period he has seen what he regarded as the perversion of the law toi the cause of oppression. How to. remedy it ? That was his problem. In the vote he saw a solution, for the vote meant a step to office and to power. In Juliu Manin .the peasant Ijas a resolute leader. Never for a moment has Mamin lost sight of his object, nor has he been in doubt as .toi the method by which he should attain it. Unflinchingly he has demanded a complete change of government, liberation of the press, freedom of speech, free elections—'full constitutional rights. And in achieving his aim he has refused assistance to of from the Liberal Party, dominated as it has been by the Bratiamus. He hate directed and encouraged the peasant, and thuis so won. Mm Ito the cause he had at heart as .toi become regarded as an idol in Ms eyes. With a determined opposition, organising its forces and many internal problems, the peasant has ai formidable task ahead of him. Much depends upon the measure of success he attains in Bumania. All through the Balkans, the peasantry has been increasing in power, as it increased its hold upon the land. There jhais been a great redistribution of arable land since .the war. Agrarian laws l have eased the hardsMps under which the peasant suffered. At one time the peasant was in a very backward state, but no. longer is that the case. In B.ulgariai and' Jugoslavia, as well as in Bumauia, the peasant is strengthening his position in politics. It is not too' much to saly that, hatting won his spurs in Bumania, he is not at all unlikely •to try his strength elsewhere in the Balkan peninsula