Manawatu Evening Standard. FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 1922. FARMERS AND POLITICS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 343, 10 March 1922, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 1922. FARMERS AND POLITICS.

Thu Auckland Provincial Branch ol tin 1 Now Zealand Farmers’ Union, while it appears to have made a success!nl hit with its trading opera lions, has not, seemingly, profited by the advice ol members of the- Union in other parts of the Dominion, who are just as resolutely opposed to the formation of a Fanners’ Political Party as a section ol the Auckland Provincial Union is determined to bring such a party into existence. We eonkl understand the persistence and insistence of the Auckland people it they were unanimous in their support ol the movement which Captain Colheek and a tew of his fellow-farmers have been engineering lor the last lourPen or lit teen years, lint, we gather that, so far from unanimity pre\ailing ;n the matter, many members of the Union are strongly opposed to the creation of a party individual members ol which can only attain political success at the expense ol men who have served their interests taithlully and well in Parliament, and who may easily he trusted to do .so again. We do not expect to see the members of the Farmers’ Union in the other provincial districts following the example ol their tellows in the Auckland Province, by contesting seats which are hold by those whom they know to be their Iriends, they are not actually farmers themselves. Apparently, however, the ambitions of certain gentlemen who are members of the Auckland Fxccntivc of the New Zealand Farmers' Union arc prompting them to a line of action which can only end in confusion to themselves and to those who have been, and who are still, their friends. The seven seats in the Auckland Province which Mr Duxfield, the Provincial President, ami Captain Colhock', the Dominion Vice-president, have decided to contest in the interests of a Farmers’ Party, whose policy is to he expounded by a leader yet to be ailpointed. are * typical farming _ constituencies that, with one exception, have been held by the sitting members _ for the last ten years or more, with decided benefit to the farming community, whose interests have been as carefully looked after and safeguarded, as it is possible for any sectional interests to be conserved m a (tenoral Assembly winch must cater for the interests ol the cominnuitv as a whole. The membership of the Auckland branches of the J< armors’ Union is neither as extensive nor as iniluontial as its provincial executive oflieers seem to imagine it is. The Provincial President, however, seems to have arrived at the conclusion that in spite of its relatively small membership (approximating some 3000 or so in financial standing), the Union is in a position to dominate a majority oi the votes in the electorates that arc to he contested, for we find the President saying that, out of 100,000 votes cast at the lasi General Flection, the farmers were able to count upon 250,000. The statement is almost too grotesquely misleading to need correction, except perhaps for the benefit of those who hold the view that the farming vote is the deciding (actor in polities. It can scarcely he claimed that it has proved such in the past, except in its natural alliance with the more moderately minded section of the electors. As we have more than once pointed out, there is scarcely an electorate in New Zealand that is not so over-weighted by the town vote that it would be possible torn farmers’ candidate, standing on a purely farmers’ platform and policy, to win (he scat, unless he had the assurance of other support than that of his own class.