The Timaru Herald. MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 1911. FARMERS AND POLITICS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14394, 9 January 1911, Page 4

The Timaru Herald. MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 1911. FARMERS AND POLITICS.

Wo cannot soe that the New Zealand Farmers' Union . has much to gain, and it would certainly run the risk of lolling much, by adopting the proposal which comes from the 'Auckland branch of the Union for the formation of a Farmers' Political Party. The proposal, somewhat vaguely shadowed fortii,was Considered by the South Canterbury Exeoutive on Saturday, .- and after several members had ? expressed views adverse to > tifra suggestion .it was daoidod, '.!*j wisely we think, to refer the ' Auckland remit to branches for their consideration ana expressions of opinions. If it was intended that the proposed formers' party should bo a third—or fourth —party . in the. House, it would obviously bo limited in numbers and would have comparatively little influence there. The idea that members of Parlia-. ment should be returned tore-- w present sections and* organisa* , tions, and not the interests of all ' classes, marks'■■'a tendency that is wholly retrograde, and that cannot be discouraged too severely for the sake of the Dominion as a whole. The i establishment of a Farmers' Poll tcul> Party as an actual separate party in the House would strengthen the false notion that the interests of town and country arc in some way opposed, instead of being common and interdependent, and farmers' aims which members of all parties are now ready to see the justice of and assist, might find a barrier of suspicion and prejudice raised against them if they were put forward as the objects of a distinct political section. . By returning a limited number of members solely representative of farmers' interests, the obligation, would, in large •measure, be removed _ from other members, of considering . those interests ns their own. . Short of forming a separate party in the House, which wo think would be altogether inadvisable, we do not see how the Union can, with advantage, take any further part in politics than it does at present. Party politics as such have always been strictly taboed by the Union, but there are certain political questions which vitally affect the farming industry, on which it is impossible that any organisation representing farmers' interests should not have definite opinions. Tho Farmers' Union, for example, has always urged that tho right to acquire Hie freehold should be given to Crown tenants, but it is a mere accident that in this and several other articles of its platform as affecting " farmers' politics " it happens to hold the same opinions as one of the two main political parties. There is no doubt that, through its literature, the resolutions of its branches, and '' especially the resolutions of its Dominion conferences, _ the Union has already exercised a considerable influence on legislation. It has been accustomed to refer its platform on the land question and other questions fundamentally affecting formers to candidates for tho House, and has extorted pledges for the parliamentary support of those articles of its platform in the event of election. Our renders may recall the touching dilemma of Mr Field, the Government member for Otnlri, who complained pathetically last session that obedience to his pledge to tho Farmers' Union on the land question had placed him in the position of having to vote against the Government on Mr Massey's motion of no-coiifid-denee.' Mr Field is not the only member on the Government side who has been a Farmers' Union man—Mr AVitty's name is another that occurs to us—and the strong sprinkling of new members in the Xorth Island who wore returned, pledged to its farmers' programing n1 the last election, shows tlm> the

Union is not without political influence by any aiouiis. It is probable that that influence ■would be only diminished by the establishment of a definite political association, whose first result would probably be the loss of many of its present members to the Union. The promotion of au educational department of the Union, to combat the destructive, ill-considered theories which Socialist extremists are so active in expounding, is quite another, matter. It is probable that the Union miffht direct its energies in this direction with uo email advantage.