AN EMIGRANT'S REPLY TO COLONIST.

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 112, 11 March 1893, Page 2

AN EMIGRANT'S REPLY TO COLONIST.

"' TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR. Sib,— Sometime ago your correspondent " Colonist " in writing on the subject of " the labour market," and dipping, by the way, into Freetrade, Protection, etc, promised to send you a second one dealing with the subjects of capital and strikes. His second letter has not yet appeared, and I now propose to cross swords with him over the heads of his .darlings.. , al «sady „ trowed, ont^fnf jfrhonph^ he may have she'drs brilliant starlight over the subjects in hand, yet eveaFejldmg Stars differ in 'glory, and his^ lightf differeth strangely from my own twinkle. The L.jaojnte- :. x o r °Mb.a^4h^ i aJbonr )i . market here and el&ewlj^rQ \is anecteaDy^ large numbers of' lif en depending on public works for a livKbood, who, when those wqrks-cea'sr^oodijtfti paj&ffry wi|h idleness/ "Does he tobsct tnar Hbouwrs •are to blame for this iftatd ofMairs ? Or does he blame pnWid! works ( for ing those labourers ? No doubt labourer*,. or the toiling classes, are increasing in number rapidly, they are a prolific class, but besides their natural increase, thetf? are artificially increased in do* countries I by bad governments, <prj>perty, thjere^and perhaps here, is falling into, fewer^h^ijds, - A and it follows, .of; course,' thaY.liieh» o * number increases in proportion as the money, sta6ks increase in size, and land owners decrease in number. Besides these two patents for increasing their 3} number, there is what Americana work-. v men call the "Iron Scab," — that is, new . I -machines, which 1 do the wdfcfcipfXfnen, often turning, out a large per centa^e, p£them from their respective workshops to 1 swell the ranks of the, unemployed. I agree with him that workmen have ihe notion knocked into their head* "that r capitalists: try to get the utmost pat of I them far little pay ; ; and this is how, the", woolly-projectile was into my .' own. Years ago when times were bad 17/?I 7 /? volunteered to have my wages; deduced by * about one fifth, niy employer accepted my. " v sacrifice and appeared pleased and gratis fied, and not many months after thiar^ arrangement took place, colpnial values..* took an unexpected jump, I may, say, : flight upwards. Haying removed myVwageS ' n boundary by the exact demand of the ' ; ■" Golden reed ". (thaj; myrMend. belauds). ". I expected at this sudden trim of affairs *^ to have my wages .boundery brought back to the old pegs at least. / Perhaps. 'it is needless to say that I was disappointed, and my advice to workers is, peye^ suffer your wages to be measured by the golden ' ! rule until it is. gazetted as the notion's standard yardstick, till then, take" a piece of barb, wire instead to "guard it, and get your fellow workmen to stand witnyotf like posts, and swingers to keep t»\ jagged rope dtiff i and dangerous to ; jaR// encroachers. " Colonist " thinks' our Liberalism unchristian and unbrotherly, , y while it favours trade protection^ "thus* 1 tampering with, the .beneficent and natural law of freetrade. We'have sufficient evidence that- the people of New Zealand do not wish to be.bro.there/d,sr sistered. A section of the r wish to erect the barrier. of a'duaXyoii*}, between them and their less fortunate fellow men, lest they should •' hsfcel/tf descend to the low level of brotherhood^ This being so, with other silly divisions amongst ourselves, why mention^our duty of brotherhood to other nations ;or colonies. As to Christ's political economy, no nation has yet tried it; and if *hystatesman even distantly r proposes J5K* theories to be brought into practice,- he isT hounded with a number of eviji names, r and that often by the . V uuco gurd." M lf • different countries 'could onlyi produce different articles for export, sayi one cheese only, a second: horee shoes, <and a third only walking sticks and red herrings, then Freetrade would be a natural law, even if peoples were each others' enemies as now.. :. But' every country is furnished with ifo people's" requirements, and Freetrade not only i means free exchange, but free competition. Competition is a cruel waf wbere'fh«[ weakest go to the wall.' Nature^ allow!, us the use of any warfare to repel our destroyers, hence the natural law of protection from the merciless old world devourera. Coll Freetrade, brotherhqod,. and golden' rule of our times by. their true names of FreeJGhrab, Brahmlh-Cain-hood, and Rule of Fleece. As 'well fix a postage stamp on New Zealand's brow and expect it to be carried to Paradise as expect Freetrade to our* the -unemployed or any other difficulty here. Only the other day a New Zealand bootmaker, & declared Freetrader, admitted that Freetrade would ruin many New Zealand boot, makers but he consoled himself for that catastrophe by adding ".It wilJ.hnrig'abpu^ the survival of the fittest." No doubt he counts on himself being one of the r elect cobblers, fait not " a little previous," fox "Colonist" to say that manhood snmig| is a failure because it hasiiot at once g« over the unemployed difficulty ? We -awt surely marching on, our voice has aksady got behind the' throne, two. old-fashioned dignitaries — Governor and^ , Upper House —have had to bow to our majesty, thanks to our Premier and his Ministers! We are already grappling with the large estate plague, which, if wisely doctored, will cause a wide and perpetual diffilsiori of wealth, and if other parts of the great British empire travel with tis, and they are trying to, the "good time ooming"? will soon' be here. The, long-sufferinjf brain of labour fairly set to wofckj with other national reforms, will soph devise a plan to prevent capital-r-the m&e ticket, or token, of its own worth— from oppressing labour itself, the great creator of all human wealth and comfort. I am, etc., Emigrant.