The Northland Age. Published Twice a Week. Price Twopence. OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE FARMERS’ UNION. WEDNESDAY and FRIDAY FRIDAY, DEC. 9. POLITICAL JUGGLERS

Northland Age, Volume 28, Issue 2, 9 December 1927, Page 4

The Northland Age. Published Twice a Week. Price Twopence. OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE FARMERS’ UNION. WEDNESDAY and FRIDAY FRIDAY, DEC. 9. POLITICAL JUGGLERS

Next year will be election year and early in 1928 we may expect to find a number of members of the present Parliament feeling their way with a view to ascertaining if there are better prospects of being returned to Parliament it they slip over the political fence. It has been already announced that several members on the Government’s side of the House have in contemplation the matter of swopping horses in the political stream. From information which we have in our possession a number of the “with for and against” politicians are rather anxious as to their future, and as a result they have been sounding other political parties in the hope that they may be chosen to be t;ie standard bearers of sucn partita The term "political rat” has eftc n been applied to this type of politician, but we feel that it is luo ugly a word t» be used, not that we approve of a member of Parliament changing his coat to suit his personal convenience. To make our meaning perfectly clear let us state that political convictions are not bred in a man in a day. They are developed as a result of a study of politics extending over a period of years. How then is it reasonable for a man to throw overboard his convictions. There are some men, of course, who have never had a political conviction: Tney have not brains enough to think intelligently of one national problem. Their opinions on matters which coant would not do credit to a pr.mary school boy. The sole object of such men is to be a member ol Parliament and they care not what party they follow so long as they get there. Their allegiance to a particular party, amounts to the sum total of standing by that party when matters go swimmingly, but w-ien the party is up against it so to speak, they look tor iresh fields and pastures new politically. Such men are not an adornment to any organisation, because they are useless on attack, and are missing when the party is on the defensive. No party worthy of the name will admit into its ranks renegades trom another organisation. To do so would be to commit political suicide. Only place seekers and humbugs make tours round the political circle. There are a good many of these in Parliament to-day but their end is not far distant.