Mr Poison on Politics. Grotesquely Untrue

Northland Age, Volume 28, Issue 67, 19 September 1928, Page 2

Mr Poison on Politics. Grotesquely Untrue

A reply to the attack made by the Hon A D McLeod Minister of Lands, on the politics ot Mr W J Poison president of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, and the tactics ot the Country party, was made by Mr Poison in the course of an address to electors at Okau recently. Mr Poison referred to the Minister’s misrepresentations of fact in his speech at Waitoa. It was, he said, Mr McLeod’s usual method of reply. It was so well kno\* n that he Mr Poison had kept the Farmers’ Union out of politics, and that he was not a member of the Country Party, that it was not necessary to answer Mr McLeod on the point. The fact that the Minister’s anger was due to the fact that the speaker was opposed to Reform, and apparently only Farmers Union presidents, who, like Mr J Bitchener, M.P., supported Reform, should be allowed to voice political opinions. The allegation that he, Mr Poison, had used the oraganisation of the Farmers’ Union or allowed it to be used for political purposes was grotesuely untrue. The fact was that Mr McLeod had been thwarted in his endeavours to exploit the Fanners Union for political purposes — hence his rage.