ACCEPTANCE OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE NATIONAL PARTY

Wanganui Chronicle, 5 November 1949, Page 4

ACCEPTANCE OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE NATIONAL PARTY

The growth of the National Party is evidence of the greater acceptance of its philosophy, said the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Holland), referring, at a meeting at Waverley this afternoon, to the progressive increase since 1935 in the votes secured by the party. The Town Hall was filled to overflowing, Mr. D. Hughes, chairman of the Town Board, presided.

Mr. Holland said that one would have thought that if the Labour Party was as good as it claimed to be the National Party would have been wiped out of existence by now. The increase in the vote encouraged him greatly, because it demonstrated that the hearts of the people were in the right place, and that they were not going to be side-tracked by irrelevant issues.

Mr. Holland said the National Party had been able to do something that had npt. been possible in any other country, and that was to amalgamate what some people thought were the irreconcilable interests of town and country. He found that country people realised that manufacturing and city interests had an important part to play in the country's economy. One looked to manufacturing industries to provide useful employment for many people, who could not be employed in agricultural and pastoral occupation. The main complaint today was that most of the legislation had a major bias in favour of city interests. That was recognised as a dangerous trend.