THE REFORM PLATFORM.

Wairarapa Age, 29 July 1925, Page 7

THE REFORM PLATFORM.

STATED AT NEWTOWN.

BY

HON. A. D. MCLEOD.

: The Hon. A. D. McLeod, M.P., as chairman of the organising executive of the Political Reform League, was the principal speaker at a meting at Newtown on Monday night. Mr McLeod who was greeted with loud applause, said: «“Our party suffered at the last election because we were not properly organised, and the result was we had vote-splitting. Although we came back with 70,000 more votes, as a party we were seven

or eight mon short. That more than anything helped to break up our old chief, because we had to pass through difficult times, with a party that was just able to carry on. “That Is Your Job.” “ 1 am not here to choose a candidate for you, or even to make suggestion in that direction. Our party ! does not force candidates upon ■ electorates. The finding of a suit- | able candidate is your job, not ours; 1 When the day arrives that our party ! throws upon an electorate a candi- ; date of an executive’s choosing, then the days of constitutional Government; for which we stand, are gone. We have made up our minds that what happened in 1928 will not happen again if organisation can save the position. An organising executive has been set up and from one end of New Zealand to the other branches have been formed. As a result of this our pr rty to-day is ( batter organised than it has ever been, in its political .history. We must organise continuously; keep at it all the time, because organisation is the very heart of political action to-day. The Labour Party in some respects are better organised, because a very large section of those who vote fer extreme Labour work in season and out of it to further their cause. And I say all power to them; but it is our job—your job—-to see that you too are organised to further the interests of the cause for which we stand. It is fer yon to choose your candidate. Gospel Truth About Fusion. “I know that at this stage it is ex peeted by an audience that it will he told not so much about polities ! but of what became of fusion. Well, I am not going to say much about that. If the Gospel history of fusion is ever told it will be proved that it was not our party that tried to save its political skin. “We are not going to stand by and see organised Labour go in and win electorate after electorate if we can help it. Only One set 'of individuals can say whether we will have fusion or not, and those are the people who are our bosses all the time; the people of thjg country will decide, and I have little doubt as to what they will decide, but I earnestly appeal to you to organise and work for the good of the cause we all have at heart.” (Applause.)