Reforms Bombardment

Northland Age, Volume 28, Issue 66, 12 September 1928, Page 3

Reforms Bombardment

Country Party Attacked Dud Shells Minister s Criticism “The Hon. H D McLeod will ? address a meeting of electors, 1 the platform of the Country 1 Party will be dealt with.” So ran - advertisments in the city and ; some provincial newspapers rec--2 ently. Mr McLeod made a bombastic attack on the Country ; Party throughout his speech but 5 his statements went so wide ot ■ the truth that they have been treated as a big joke. Prefacing his remarks with a statement to the effect that country political groups in Australia were for their own protection being forced back into the political camps from which they first dissociated themselves, Mr McLeod said this was “largely the result of the ravings of a few individuals who are quite incapable of directing for any length of time anything ot importance to themselves or to anybody else.” The same political process, he said was going on to-day in this country, “largely because of the actions of the president of the Farmers’ Union, who I have no hesitation in saying is allowing union organisers to participate in organising in certain districts directly against the Reform Party and its candidates.” “Direct organisingj is being done by paid servants ot the union in favour of the Labour Party and Mr Poison, as president of the union, is aware ot the tact.” Mr Colbeck: It is not true. They are not being used for party purposes. Mr McLeod: Mr Poison with his tongue in his cheek publicly states that he is averse to the union entering into party politics yet quite recently he allowed his name to be published as taking part in the selection of a Country Party candidate against the sitting member for Rotorua, Mr F F Hockly, who not only is a member of the union but also as a member of Parliament, has for a great number of years done more in a practical way tor farmers than has even Mr Poison himself. Many great men since the days of Chamberlain, its first great pro-consul both at the heart of the Empire and throughout the dominions, have got down politically as well as physically to a fight for the ideal, and although progress has been made, there still remains barriers seeming almost insurmountable to all but a few other would-be statesmen. British preference , had long j been considered as the first step toward an Empire ideal, and al- ' though the attempt had been ' made by successive prime ministers and governments in no small I way to blaze the track, Mr MeLeod had no hesitation in assert- ' ing that the present Prime Minis- ‘ ter and his Government had made 1 the boldest step toward the ideal of complete British preference, s which had as yet been made in * the Dominion. ! Investigation went to show that ; the valuation placed upon a j certain farm although higher than when it was purchased in 1 1920, was lower than the amount t of the existing mortgage by , nearly 20 per cent. “I have found,” said Mr McLeod s “after examining hundreds of t cases, that this position unfortu- { natelv exists, or did exist, in all j too many instances, and that t those chiefly responsible tor the 1

building ud of a Country Party in the first place were composed, either of the unfortunate farmer about to lose his home, or the irresponsible Farmers’ Union man who gave the advice 1 have referred to as a solution of the overmortgaged settlers difficulties.”