LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1907, 15 November 1913, Page 8

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

'■ HONOURINC A BRAVE MAN. J L (To tho Editor.) ; Sir, —Having watched with keen in- J torest the beginning of the strike up to , ' tho present moment, will you please al- j : low mo. to expross, in your-paper, an j Islander's appreciation of the courage , : and bravery of the waterside worker r who dared to publicly declare his inten- : tion of again returning to work, and , ' signing his name "Roderick Macdon- ] aid." It seems to me that somo recog- , nition of the brave act, through the :• medium of your paper, is only due to i : the man who dared to do what ho felt was right, against tho wrath of his Ifonner' work-nintes. I cannot understand how men could 'n.llow themselves to be subjected to the ' 'wild talk of agitators, especially as ' 'ithese agitators aro, in the majority, taen from outside New Zealand. All _, Jionour to tho women who are nobly ' t jdoing tho work on the farms, while hus- f [bands, sons, and brothers are engaged ( lin. saving the produco of months of t lhard, unremitting toil and labour. ; \ For the sake of those who aro suffer- 5 1 ling most keenly from tho effect of tho 1 »m-called-for strike, I add my voice s Vith those who wish it a speedy settle- 'i Inent.—-I am, etc., i : ■ ■:■; A SOUTH SEA ISLAND WOMAN. c . Novembpr .11, 1913. , t jVSR. TRECEAR AND THE STRIKE, s (To the Editor.)' t ■'' Sir,— Having followed closely tho re- a , porta in your columns, and thoso of f ■ "other "Wellington newspapers, of the J unfortunate happenings in the Einpiro 1 ;' City, permit mo tho favour of a few «j ilines of space- in "defence of tho above- <j ■ iiiamed gentleman. •* : In. almost every community tlicro will j 1 bo found one or moro educated, and * : personally likeable, meu who suffer from ] Bomo kind of mental kink, which at ' • . times brings: them into collision with ? ■ lovel-headed-.aiid; rightrthinking persons j bf whatever status in society. Mr. Trc- * gear is a case in point. Cultured, schol- J nrly, kindly ill disposition, and clean- . Jiving in eyory respect, ho is yet afflicted with this perversity of mental vision. T jHe is, personally, almost as amiable as * '•Mr. Dick in "David Copperfield," but / !ho has also Mr. Dick's (with- n 1 out.-Mr. Dick's excuse)—lie cannot keep jj ..King..Charles'tlio First's head out of i]iis: memorial. If, liko Mr.'Dick, ho ■'would content himself with: publishing r this infirmity by means ; of a kite, ad- j dressed to tho clouds, he might appease his.own mental cravings without doing „ harnr-to'his follows, or forfeiting the * riteem in which he is, but for his obses- j sion,:jiistly held by them:- But,/alas! T .'His _amiablo r visionary long-ridden by j. . the view that the millennium is to he -j . attained,by tho means which ho adopts a to .that end .seeks not the aid of a kite d an the. air, but that of the public press, s •and the/public platform, for the pro- .. mitigation-of- his Utopian conceptions. ' " Ho'.'conceives that the world is out of t joint, • by reason of tho oppression of r . the poor by the rich, and that he is e one ■ of. those who have been born to 0 ; ' ■"Bet'it rightY; '■ Carried away by p Nation of tho direful truth that, in other \ ilands, and in other times, tho rich have y , jbecomo rich by grinding tho faces of 1 the poor, he, honestly, but mistakenly, j lassnmes that, in this paradise for work- { ineu.whoro no such, conditions' exist, j tho lawful ownership of property by one t is necessarily the robbery of another, c In other words, ho is, in theory, an \ out-and-out Socialist; but, in fact, he is ] the apostlo of topsy-turveydom. If, by - one,stroke, ho could put tho employer t of labour iii the cutter, and tho la- c bonrer in tho, saddle,''he would fondly i imagine that ho had realised his Utopia, 1 forgetting that he had only elevated tho one- at-the expense of the other, nnd had done nothing to realise his dream of universal equality." , ■ " '■■ • Volumes of sound argument .have been written and could be written to, .; prove the fallacy of his opinions. fCn- | fortunately, ignorant '< who aro not given to the exercise of -t logic aiid reason—receive with open 1 arms the. educated extremist who voices ,1 impracticable views which jump with their own. crude notions. It is for this 1 reason that men like Mr. Tregear be> j come, in times of popular ferment, ( forces of danger. By the aid of their j education and scholarship, as well as j ,by tho moral effect of their standing in j ■ c ' society, they are able to inflame the i unreasoning, and ill-directed, minds Si i the audience to which they particularly \ address themselves.- It is deeply to be i regretted that a man of Mr. Tregear's i ' and position should not, at 'such a crisis as the present, direct his i abilities to' soothing, instead of exas- 1 derating, tho heated passions of those ( iwhoni ho has .thought fit to take under ■, ■Jhia wing. He could do so, for the same • iinfluence which lie wields" in inflaming ; he could, with equal effect, exert in ', calming, tho of his proteges, • and he would do so (for ho is a kindly ; iiian and a gentleman) were it not for King Charles's head—that unbidden, • but inevitable guest, which will got; ' into his memorial, ;and which (to conifflss the truth) gets iuto 'tho memorial ■ .of nearly every one of us,.but"not in a , jfonn where it may becomo harmful.— (J am, etc.; ■ ' ■' ..' ; 'COMMON SENSE.