AGAINST POLITICS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 418, 28 July 1928, Page 11

AGAINST POLITICS

FARMERS’ UNION VOTES DECISIVELY

PRESIDENT SUPPORTED (From Our Resident Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Friday. The New Zealand Farmers’ Union has declared decisively against participation in politics, supporting the recommendations of its president, Mr. W. J. Poison. In his presidential address at the opening of the conference, Mr. Poison set out at length the reasons why, in the opinion of the political committee, the union should keep clear of politics. These reasons did not satisfy some members, who wished to have the question reopened, Mr. Poison promising to give an opportunity for discussion. This came when Mr. A. A. Ross (Auckland) moved that a political organisation should be set up outside the Farmers’ Union for the purpose of putting into effect the political platform adopted by the conference. “If you want to burst the Farmers’ Union, go into politics,” was the comment of one delegate, when the motion was discussed, and it represented the view of a majority of those present. When the motion was put to the meeting it was lost by 36 votes to 21. The report of the political committee of the union that it was undesirable that the union as an organisation should engage in party politics and that any political action which members decided to take must be apart from the organisation as a union was adopted.