"THIRD ON THE LIST."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18762, 16 July 1924, Page 10

"THIRD ON THE LIST."

LIBERALISM IN COUNTRY. MR. MCLEOD'S ESfIMATE. SOME " DISGUSTED" FARMERS. [BI TELEGBAPH. — SPECIAL BEPOETEB.] WELLINGTON. Tuesday. "Liberalism, so far as I could find out, was dead," declared the Minister for Lands, Hon. A. D. McLeod, amid derisive Liberal laughter in the House of Representatives to-day. Mr. McLeod-was referring to a tour of the Dominion which he had made recently. "'•So far as the country districts are concerned," he went on, the next election will be a fight between Reform and Labour. If a vote were taken to-morrow Liberalism would be third on the! list." The Leader of the Opposition, Mr. T. M. VV'ilford ; Not on your life. The Minister read a letter from a leading farmer in : 'the Wairarapa, whom he stated to have been an enthusiastic supporter of the Liberal Party. The writer said that he and other Liberals vrere completely disgusted with the present policy of the party. Th«y agreed with the Prime Minister that constitutional Government must rule, and they renounced Liberalism so far as its present leadership was concerned. The writer added that Mr. Massey had offered all that a statesman could offer in faiirness to the public, Mr. Wiliord (holding up a letter) : Here is a hotter one from the Farmers* Union. Mr. McLeod went on to refer to a complaint by Mr. S. G. Smith (Taranaki) that farmers Taranaki could not obtain State advances sufficient for their needs. Mr. Smith: They cannot get any at all. Mr. McLeod: Trie reason they were refused was that the valuations were so high that they could not sustain the- mortgages. A Liberal Member: Quite wrong. Mr. McLeod; 11 the Liberals think that the Government'should take over all the burdens of the farmer and the worker they. Bhould shift over to the Labour benches and profess the Socialism which the honourable gentlemen there do. A Labour Member: That would be the end of you.