FAITH WITHOUT WORK.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3886, 3 January 1884, Page 3

FAITH WITHOUT WORK.

[To the Editor of the Daily Teleoeaph.] g IBi —Tho meeting of democrats at the Criterion Hotel early last month has been followed up by a "demonstration" at the "YVwking Men's Club on New Year's Eve. Tno kindly feeling that prompted the invitation to prominent leaders of tho so-called loaders of tho Liberal party, and tho rule of tho club that excludes any political diseussajoii, wore abundantly sufficient to prevent a breach of good manners. But tho presence of two ex-Cabinet Ministers—one on either side of the President—and the absence of any conspicuous member of tho "Conservative " party, may aurely be regarded as an event of some significance, it is evident that ?ho two eminent guests of that evening aro not blind to tho prospects ot future events. Fickle Fortune must be wooed to bo wou, and there is some advantage in being first in tho fiold._ In the meantime the Conservatives are doing nothing. They aro equal to any amount of faith, but they have no mind for work, and they absolutely refuse to toady to tho power of tho day. In this they ahow_ a great want of common senso. Tho Legislature of tho colony has conferred upon the majority that which fonaeriy was con-

sidered the sacred privilege of the iew. _ In an election for the House of Representatives ono man has as much voting power as another. Man for man there is perfect equality in everything but wealth, social position, and perhaps intelligence. I am not apeakinir of individuals, hut of the two great classes into which society is dividedmanual laborers and mental laborers. There is as high intelligence to be found in tho ono clans jis in tho other, but the manual laborers being the most numerous there is of course a wider divergence of c.iaractor, as well as a greater diifereuco of opportunities for .self-improvement to be found amongst them than in those who have had happier"advantages in life. It is then to those who have not had those advan ages that the Conservatives should address themselves. It is to those that the Liberals are never weary of preaching and cajollmg No chance i; missed. If it be a hvc-pouiul note for a public library the m-mey is forthcoming ; if it be a present of books tor school prize* tho gift is inndu : if it bo a 100 turd or an entertainment at a Working Men's Club somebody is there to gruto tho proceedings: if it he v Friendly Society necessitating a ridiculous costume, and dreary platitudes from st gentleman having half the alphabet after his name, your true Liberal will not hesitate to sacrifice himself on the altar of imitation. The Conservatives regard all this sort of thing as pure humbug or'as hypocrisy. But if it bo either the one or the other, what docs it matter? It is not .seen through by those intended to bo lmmbiurged : it swells the Liberal ranks, which is oflittlo importance, and it catches votes, which is of very irreat importance indeed. The working mnuhas an Ktiylishman's instinct to be hospitable, he likes to bo entertained as much as he delights to entertain his friends, and in the conduct of Liberals towards him he discovers both sympathy and friendship. The attitude of tho Conservative is, apparently, a "stand-off-the-gniss " kind of style that is repulsive, though in heart he is the truer friend of the working man and a truer friend_ to the country of either his birth or adoption._ It is the duty of Conservatives to prove this to bo thecal, and iv the conversion of the working classes to this opinion thero lie 3an untouched Held for the political missionary. —I am, ire, A Conservative. Napier, January 3, ISSL