CORRESPONDENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume III, Issue 642, 1 February 1872, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

£3T We do not hold ourselves responsible for the Opinions expressed by our correspondents.

ANOTHER GHOST,

To the Editor of the Evening Stab. g IB> —I have read this evening with much pleasure an article in your paper ridiculing the scare which has come upon the good people of Auckland from the supposed appearance amongst as of that dreaded phantom, Internationalism. I agree with every word you say, besides we are not venerable enough yet to have a ghost. But while you have very effectively striven to lay one unquiet spirit, may I not ask if you, yourself, have not lately been helping to raise another —a spirit, I venture to say, as "dark, mysterious, vengeful, and murderous," as that which emanates from Internationalism —a spirit which, when evoked, leads men to commit such dark, murderous, and vengeful deeds, as the Sheffield enquiry revealed. I refer to your seeming ad' V( jc£cy of the recent strike on the rai' vy works. It is not right that I she $ encroach upon your space by enterin^—; length on this subject; but, as I uu ag -stand, you are ready to let your rea£. ' see both sides of the question, and, 5s hitherto, your paper has only advocated the cause of the men now on strike, will you let me say a few words on the other side. Ist. Did these men agree to work on the Railway, knowing at the time that they would have to work for nine hours a day ? If they did this, I maintain that they have no just ground of complaint. Of course,' no one disputes their right to stop work whenever they are dissatisfied with their bargain; or if, as they say, they

find that nine hours on the railways are too much for them, why do they not go quietly back to the several occupations they would have been engaged in, if the railway had not been commenced P Surely it is the merest balderdash, bunkum, bosh, to talk in this new and free country of ours, about " nigger driving," and the working men's rights being in danger. If these men think they should not be asked to work more than eight hours a day, the manly, straightforward course would have been for them to have made that a sine qua non, before begining to work at all.

2nd. Are they prepared to work for a proportionately less rate of wages for eight hours P If not, I again say they have no just ground of complaint. The government, or Mr Brogden—or whoever it may be—makes an offer of so much money for so many hours' work : the offer may be taken or rejected at will, and if the latter, why in the world should there be any ill feeling engendered in consequence ? It would be just as absurd and unreasonable for me to go into a shop and afterwards make a public outcry and complaint because the proprietor would not let me have his goods at my price instead of at his.

I very much fear, sir, that the writers of the letters in your paper, and the promoters of the working men's meeting the other night, are some would-be Odgers or Bradlaughs, who, being utterly opposed to the doing of any work with their own hands, are desirous of gaining an unenviable notoriety by evoking the foul and unnatural spirit of class against class, viz., the honorable working man against the equally honorable employer. When people, in this country, write and speak vehemently about the " honest industrious " working men being " trodden upon," and "oppressed," by any one else, you may be very sure that they are neither honest nor industrious working men themselves ; for, as you truly say, " there is not to be found within our coasts, either wealth or power possessed by any one, or any party, that can throw a blighting shadow over honest industry." Yours, &c, Looker-on.