PARTY POLITICS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23089, 14 July 1938, Page 16

PARTY POLITICS

I. POSITION OF THE UNION ! APVOCACY OF CONVICTIONS ! -STATEMENT BY PRESIDENT ' . * , TELEGRAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION] , .. WELLINGTON, Wednesday The .opinion that it was wiser for New Zealand Farmers' Union to £.niaintain an attitude entirely apart ifrom party interests was; reiterated by ff ifae. Doniinjon president,. Mr. W, W. Mulholland, when addressing the annual conference of. the union at Wellington. *"Mr. Mulholland said he believed, howt ever, that the union would be failing *in its duty to farmers and to the counb .try generally, if, having put forward *fa policy which was almost unanimously supported by the farmers of the Do- * minicta, »t did not vigorously champion jf that policy. 5? "In following this line of action, I f have of necessity been strongly critical bof Government proposals which were not in accord with our policy, and I Buppose it was inevitable that the Government should resent ■ such criticism and find it easier to criticise the critics than to pieet our examination of their measures," he said. "This has been the experience of all my predecessors, ? and I could hardly expect to fare dif- * ferently, ' "it is surely going too far, however, „ when the Prime Minister, Mr. Savage, ' whose Government has compelled workers in industry to join specific < unions without any choice, goes round r the , country insinuating that the | yarinera' Union does not represent the f farmers and trying to induce farmers * to break away from their organisation. *1 am glad to say that all Ministers of i the present Government do not take ?<Up that attitude, They recognise the * farmers' right to organise as being as inherent to them ps to any other secj tion of the community, Indeed, they avail themselves quite freely of the assistance Of'our organisation, which . has . been ; freely given as it* criticism,") I