AN AGRICULTURAL PARTY 343 



to his views on Imperial and general questions, and unless those 

 views commend themselves to the voters he will fail to be returned. 



9. The second part of this resolution suggests the formation 

 of a Joint Committee, composed of members drawn from all 

 parties. Your Committee would point out, however, that the 

 Parliamentary Committee of the Central Chamber is potentially 

 all that is required. It is composed of members drawn from the 

 two great parties, and there is nothing to prevent other parties 

 being represented upon it. The Parliamentary Committee has 

 never been influenced by party considerations, and there are 

 manifest objections to multiplying unattached committees. 

 The one fault that can be found with the present Parliamentary 

 Committee is that, collectively, it might show more activity, 

 and that its individual members ought to attend its meetings 

 more regularly. If this can be said of a Committee which has 

 the stimulating force of the Central Chamber to stir it into action, 

 there is no reason for supposing that one which has not this 

 impetus behind it will be more active. There is also the danger 

 that with two Committees if the second one be formed there 

 would be overlapping, and therefore waste of time, possibly 

 friction, and, more particularly, many things that are at present 

 well done would be left undone, as they might fall between the 

 two Committees in a well-intentioned endeavour not to interfere 

 with each other's work. 



10. One proposal laid before your Committee is that agri- 

 culturists should select their own candidate, subject to the 

 approval of the Central Chamber, and inform the " party " asso- 

 ciations that they have done so. and claim their support. It is 

 further suggested that in a division where the predominant 

 vote is Liberal a candidate acceptable to the Liberals should 

 be chosen, and conversely in the case of a Conservative con- 

 stituency. It is claimed that this course w 7 ould involve a minimum 

 of expenditure, though it is pointed out that a central fund 

 xvould, of course, be a necessity to fight a battle in some semi -rural 

 districts, and in certain cases to aid suitable and successful 

 candidates to bear the expenditure of Parliamentary life. Your 

 Committee record this proposal without comment. 



11. Another method has been the old practice of putting 

 questions to candidates at or before elections and endeavouring 

 to hold them to their pledges ; but in practice it is found impossible 

 to state the needs of an industry in a sufficiently definite form 

 to make a candidate's reply in any way binding. 



12. To give definite examples : At the General Election in 

 1905 the local Chambers put the following questions, among 

 others, to all candidates : 



LOCAL TAXATION. 



(a) that a permanent and comprehensive measure be 

 passed, giving adequate relief from the excessive and unfair 

 burdens at present imposed upon agriculture. 



