A QUESTION OF FRANCHISE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 31, 24 May 1907, Page 3

A QUESTION OF FRANCHISE.

TO THE EDITOR. Either the magniloquent boast that New Zealand is the paradise where democracy's safeguard against dictatorship and tyranny : Majority rule, enjoys transcendant prerogatives, is a lie ; or, this section of His Majesty's dominions (the Rohe Potae) has been wantonly exempted; and that here, secluded by distance from the outer world and a sparse population, every fanatic having hallucinations to toy with and experiment upon, may willy nilly import them here, whether we have decided by a majority vote that he shall be permitted to do so or not. It is a small matter when we reflect that we are yet a small community ; but we are growing, and if these abominations be not resisted now, the day will come, and the plea justified by right of long usage, when these exhuman vivisectors will say : —" You squeal too late ! Keep still now until we have eviscerated and mutilated to our satisfaction ! " I say, the time has arrived when rebellion thereagainst is proper and consistent with the inalienable birthrights of Free Britons. And it becomes the duty of every unfadridden citizen to prevent the further encroachment of this pestilent intrusion. It is the inherited privilege of every unit of our glorious empire to extract all the happiness and comfort he can out of his surroundings ; which privilage is confirmed to him by a law of the land, made and provided for that case, to wit: that he may by a local option vote, declare whether it adds or detracts from his comfort, to permit or refuse fermented liquors to enter his precincts. As matters now stand, we are dictated to, contrary to law ; we are compulsorily disfranchised; we are a community of outlaws, compelled to pay heavy rates and taxes, but arbitrarily excluded from benefits. By this ostracism wg haye become the objects of degradation and insult; of espionage and pimpery. We, the founders and pioneers of generations and civilisations yet to be in this wilderness, are denied the con;-non c'isjvn •r.fir.ns brethren in the uucer worid L-njov. tlut is, to elect what is for our welfare, ; ! nd forbidden, by oppressive enact nv.nts, to be contented and virile members of a free nation. Ordered by ordinances we are prohibited from assisting to frame; we have to look pleasant when our homes are surrounded with spies and informers, who peer under window blinds, and flatten their ears against door jambs where the door stands slightly ajar. Our home confidences have to be uttered in whispers, lest they become the property of those having no right thereto. When we return from rail journeys the privacy of our grip-sack and gladstone may be exposed to the public on the station platform, unless we affix a label itemising their contents, if the hireling of this permicious inquisition so desired to degrade us. In short, we are Pariahs, and the objects of jeer and derision to the world ! A hoary old axiom contends that every community is governed according to its deservings. Take this to heart, brothers, such is our declension, our merit, and such our remuneration!—l

am, etc., W.B. [Later I will briefly outline by what mendacious gained entrance.]