" FAIR PLAY " IN REPLY.

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 57, 1 November 1892, Page 2

" FAIR PLAY " IN REPLY.

[to the editor of the stab,] Sir,— l have very little time to write to newspapers, and thought I would wait till nearer the next election to reply to "Faddist and Anarchist"; but 1 will say a few words We will first shorten the long name to Mr Fad ; and I can , assure ' Mr Fad ' that I am neither the one nor the other of his honorable names; may he long enjoy it. lam the son of a blacksmith, my father had hard knuckles ; so have I. I haye been a sailor for many years, and since I came to the colony 20 years ago I have worked hard, bushfalling, clearing, stumping, ect., and not very long since was slabbing iv a saw-mill, so you cannot say I am not a bona fide working man. At sea and land 1 haye long ago made and mended my own trousers and boots, and aa for carpentering if you had looked round, you would have seen me at it yesterday, (a Jack -of -all trades, you see). So you need not hide your candle uuder the bushel, and say as you did that I sneer at the poor tailor aud carpenter, because I am one of them myself, and poor enough. You complain about me using nick- names iv re so-called Liberals ; but that is no nick-name ; I don't call people liberals, who are ouly liberal with other peoples' money, in putting iuto their own pockets, and 1 say that £150 is plenty for any working man to sit in Parliament for 3 mouths ±50 a month. You give me £150, and you will see how quick I will go — Ist class to Wellington for 3 months banquetting, Hinemoa trips etc.— and you give £150 to all the working men in the colony who desire to go like me, and see what a Parliament Building you will have to build. Talk about carpentering ! Wouldn't we make laws for you, and have a jolly time of it? On the other hand it is you who call nick-Dames. You call me a turn-coat, because you cannot have it all your own way. As for the labour bureau and co-operative contracts you speak of, they have nothing to do with the Payment of Members Bill. The poor working man has the Hon Mr Sed> don to thank for those, They are not the first good acts he has done, and I hope he will continue them. As for Feilding and the RaUway Station, Post Office and one pub you talk about, I don't think Feilding was built by the so-called Liberals,' and I think, in spite of them, Feilding will surely and slowly progress. ! You will hear more from me before the next general election (if I live my dear " Mr Fad "), but I would suggest before I finish to all the 28 members of the Op { position whe voted agaiust the Payment of Members Bill, to give the £90 which was voted to them to the hospitals, each in his own district, and keep only the £150, they are really entitled to. Let Mr Wilson and Mr Bruce give theirs to the Palmerston North Hospital. I would if I were in their place. Don't you think you would " Mr Fad." lam, etc., Fair Play.