PATRIOTIC FARMERS.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14837, 1 December 1913, Page 4

PATRIOTIC FARMERS.

TO THB BDITOE OF "THB PMSs." Sir,—Will you allow mc through your columns to address the following remarks to tie farmers of New Zealand: All Hail I Congratulations to you each and all for the exemplary, patriotic, and Imperial spirit which has made itself manifest in you during our strike. Were it not for your conduct our prosperous small country would have been turned into utter chaos by a small minority who, to my mind, have no respect for the rights of others. You deserve the unstinted praise of every decent law-abiding member of the community, and your keen sense of white man squareness is not of an age, but for all time. 411 sane thinkers will readily admit that intelligent labour produces wealth, yet when any body ot men become arbitrary, dictatorial, and immune to reason, it strikes mc very forcibly their future is with the yesterdays. Truly they have joined the 3>own and Out Club. Once there was a problem of the unemployed; now there are no unemployed except thoso who are unemployable. It is irrational and irresponsible actions which spell ruinous labour disputes, and bear in mind the employer is the last man to knock off when the whistle goes. There is a sacredness in work, and in getting a foothold in this life, there are no secrets. Nature demands industry as her price. Hard work, application, intelligence, and right intent are things that count. There is a fallacy in the mind of Labour that the Capitalist is their natural enemy. This is not only ridiculous—it is well-nigh tragic; since the capitalist of to-day was the working man of yesterday. You of the farming element have the most important business in the world to-day, because food is our first need, and the next most important business is transportation, as the latter makes famine impossible. Our Labour friendshould well remember that the immutable law of Nature says: "Everything exists only during good behaviour; things done in violence must always be done over again." ■ ( • Your country, with one million souls, is prosperous; yet with a population of four millions it would become four times more so. Every white man is an asset in the country providing two things prevail, viz., being well fed and clothed, coupled with technical education to procure intelligent labour. So long as men work the world will progress further ahead. When men quit work, go on strike, and refuse arbitration, then tho world will cease to be worth living in. Labour organisations and their papers have so lieu and misled their working people that I quote Mark Twain as having said, "Truth is such a precious article; let us all economise in its use."

You have doubtless go. in the firing lino of evolution; being anxious to learn yourselves, you have taught others a lesson in mobilisation, transportation, maintenance, etc., and wo will charge it all up to experience. It is you to whom we should look in tho- event of an invasion; so modestly have you done your work that not yet have we fully realised the full measure of your worth. Labour owes you a debt of gratitude, inasmuch as you may some day relieve them from the bondage of grooming horses for Mongolian sages and attending to Asiatic children in jin-rick-shaws for tenpence a day. The primary object lesson we have learned from the "special constable lies right here in the fact, that you men from the country came voluntarily to put down mob rule and uphold law and order—and didn't you do it magnificently! It was a case of the people against the people. It was not the Government, not the soldiers, nor the police. Your actions have set the older countries of the world an example worth following (when an organised strike occurs), and they stand out as a monument that will not lose its lustre in the Hall of Ages./ All Hail! honest, hard-working, lawabiding brethren. : -.... Hail and farewell. —Yours, etc., ■ JOSEPH HAMLET. Christchurch. November 29th.