A NATIONAL CANDIDATE

Waipawa Mail, Volume LXVI, Issue 142, 26 August 1938, Page 3

A NATIONAL CANDIDATE

FROM THE RANKS OF THE LABOR PARTY OBJECTED TO SOCIALISM. CHRISTCHURCH, Last night. It is annqunced that Mr Hiram Hunter has been chosen as National candidate for the Avon electorate, but his selection has yet to he endorsed by the headquarters of the party. Mr Hunter was for many years connected with the Labor party. He was secretary of several trade unions, and from 1911 to 1914 was president of the North Canterbury Labor Representation Committee. He was elected workers’ representative on the Arbitration Court in 1923, and on retiring in 1926 he secured the first Dominion award for service car and bus drivers, whom he organised for the Drivers’ Federation. Since then, Mr Hunter has been in business on his own account in Christchurch. He was expelled last year from the Labor party because of differences over policy. “I joined the National party,” Mr Hunter said, “because I was opposed to the socialism of the Labor party’s objective—the socialisation of the means of production, distribution, and exchange. I have been opposed to the socialist policy of the party since I entered the Labor movement.’