THE WISHES OF THE PEOPLE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1240, 23 September 1911, Page 14

THE WISHES OF THE PEOPLE.

Sir,—Some two years ago X could hardly speak English. Nearly all the people I came in contact with were speaking against Sir Joseph Ward's, Bart., v'tc., etc., action in presenting to England a Dreadnought. 1 also read in a paper that the late Air. T. Taylor cabled to Loudon saying that. it' is against tho people's wishes to give tho Dreadnought. • I wondered why they didn't agree with, his action. If they gavo him the right, by electing him into .Parliament, why did they grumble? liut if ho had not the right' to do so, why didn't they make him responsible for it?

. Now I can speak and read English I both hear and. see that tho biggest.part' of (ho population in this country is not satisfied with tho conscription. This is another thing that I cannot understand. If the Government is elected by tho people to carry out their wishes, how is it that tho Government can act against their wishes, and if tho Government lias the right to do so and rules the country as it likes, why is all this writing, talking, and. protesting against it? In June, when I went for a trip to Australia. I saw in the papers many petitions asking t'o'pnrdon the Maori boy who was sentenced to death. The. clergy was also very'much opposed t'o his being executed. Judging by the papers all tho population (except a small part at Whangarei) was against his punishment, and even the judges who sentenced him strongly recommended mercy. In such a case, even in Holy Russia, if tho prisoner bo recommended by the judges to mercy ho had not • been executed. When I returned from Australia I heard that a man in Wellington had cabled to tho King asking for pardon for the Maori boy, but tho Maori boy was executed before tho King's reprieve had arrived. . I am always reading in tho papers about the Tailioa land policy. I didn't' know what it meant, so I asked a Maori tho meaning of it. He said it means "wait a bit.". Now, when the people are asking the Government to -hurry up with the land settlement the Government keens "tailioa," and when tho people ask the Government "taihea" for the Maori boy, the Government hurries up—again contradictory to the people's wishes. From the above facts it sesms to mo that the Government does not govern as clected by tho people, but as a Govcrn,ment' appointed by God. As a resident in this country before becoming naturalised, I would like ' to know, has the Government the power to do what it likes, or must it carry out the wishes of the population?—l am, etc., v •: FOKEIGN DEVIL. X mo Government does very much as it; pleases until rearing Election time. Then it begins in earnest'to look round for means to please the people." After the elections, if it . is lucky enough ,to continue in office, it - will no doubt 1 ' start pleasing itself again.]