HOW HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN ANSWERED.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1216, 19 June 1885, Page 3

HOW HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN ANSWERED.

It is wonderful what foolislmess sometimes passes for wisdom. It dep nds a great ileal on who the person is who says or does the thing, whatever it may be. Kor example, the other day, when the Premier was visiting the industrial classes at the tramway sheds, he examined an engineer’s hammer made by one of the boys, and he said : “Why did you not put New Zealand woo l into the shaft ? this is American ash.” Now, this has gone the rounds as a wise and significant reproof on the part of the Premier of the common tendency to employ imported materia s in colonial manufactures. As for as we have learnt, the unfortunate boy who made the hammer, and made it very well, no doubt, returned no answer, hut submitted to the great man’s snub with* out o word. He was, no doubt, overwhelmed, not by the wisdom or suggeativeness of the question, but by the rank and eeneral superiority of the questioner, Vet he must have felt in his own mind that the answer was an easy and a crushing one. [f an ordinary working man whom he was accustomed to and was not afraid of had asked him the self same question: * Why do yon not nut New Zealand wood into the shaft? This is American ash,” he would i stancly have replied ; “New Zealand wood, you foe ! Why, there’s no New Zealand wood that’s fit for the handle of a hammer. There may be some sorts that wool tdo for want of a better, but they are not to be g t here- American ash is the cheapest and the best, and the reason why I use 1 American ash 'S because 1 do my business agr at deal batter bin you do, and because, for the money,, you couldn’t yet as serviceable and durable a handle of any other sort of wood.” That would have been a sensible, tru.hful, straightforward, ami m mly answer for the boy to give; and we shouh hj ive thought more of him if ne’d bad the pluck to return that answer, word for word— leaving the “ fool” out for politeness’ sake, perhaps—to the Premier's twaddling and absurd qu stion. Mr Stout has some excellent qualities. He is a noble felmw in many respects—a great and a worthy colonist, and a high-principled and

big hearted man. But he twaddles terribL -ometimes, and he doesn’t know a little bit about hammer handles and Now Z:aland

w-iorts. He is quite crooke I, too, about, Kreetrade and Protect ion. No doubt he

would have on unfortunate engineer go humbugaing mun i the place to get a handle for his hammer of Mew Zealand wood at a great expense of time and money, and then have the trumpery thing break in his hand at the Hist stroke, and so lose his time, his tempe', his muiey, an I his wages; when all the while he con'd have cot an imported ash handle for a trifle at the nearest shop, which woul I last for years. And Mr Stout would have called that encouraging local industry, when, all the while the job was at a standstill. But the hoy at the in us'rial class might have hit Mr Stout harder than that. He might have sai I to him, •* He'lo, boss You’re lecturing me about not using New Z aland wood, w icb ain’t to be • ot fir, for my work, pay what I will for i'. Yet I notice you’re wearing an imported hat, and imported clothes, and hand-me-down coots, and carrying an imported walking stick, and. in fact, practising exactly the opposite of what you preach.” He might hare gone a good cal fnrthe than tha r . If he had studied public affairs at all he might have said to the Premier—“ Talking about New Zealand woods an i the desirability of using them for the handles of hammers, so as to make the most of the natural resources of the country, are you aware, sir, that during the thiee \eats that yon have been in office- - (luring two earn of wuich you were Minister of Lands—the wanton destruction of forests has gone on at thi rate of about L4d,000 a year? Do you know that you yon—lloneit Stout—are personally respon sible for the deliberate and wicked waste of more timber than would furnish a two storied hj use for every hammer handle that i will hj" used in Dunedin for the next twen'y years ? And what are you doing now to save the grand, beautiful, unreplaceahle if there is such a word—invaluable forests of New Zealand? Nothing absolutely nothing. Yet yon jaw me, with an air of infinite wisdom, because 1 don’t use New Zealand wood for a purpose for which imported wooii is much more suitable. When you cast out the mote that is in your own eye, it will be high time to cast out the ( earn that is in mine.”—Wellington Press