Honest Speech.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, 2 June 1891, Page 2

Honest Speech.

I . \ At the Eight Hours Demonstral tion in Melbourne on the 22nd b ultimo, Mr Benjamin Douglas, Presii dent of the Eight Hours' Pioneer As- * sociation, laid the foundation stone i of the eight hours memorial, and at * the subsequent banquet spoke some plain truths. He expressed his deep ; regret that the position had altered ) so much since their last gathering. t Then the affairs of the colony were i bright and prosperous. Trade was i good, and money easily obtainable. : At present trade was depressed and i money hard to get. In a few months i the colony had been brought to a . condition of comparative delapidation. — (Cries of " No.") He attri- ■ buted that to the unsettled state of t the labour market, brought about by * the machinations of a few mischief i making agitators. — (Hear, hear.) , He said that fearlessly, and, as a » pioneer, he was not afraid to speak > his mind, either in the presence of ■ those men or in their absence. As a matter of fact, he would not be allowed to say any thing before them i with which they disagreed. If he attempted to do so he would be howled I down. — (Hear, hear.) That was ■ what they called an " intelligent de- > mocracy." These men encouraged strikes ; they led their fellow men I astray ; and hundred and thousands . of men were groaning under the ) tyranny of those men who ha 3so 3 falsely led them. — (Cheers.) He advised his fellow working no longer to i follow those agitators, who were \ parasites on the inst^^Juyiwhich ; the pioneers had creawiMrMost of them lived on their wits, and not by I honest industry. He would chal- > lenge some of those misohievous

eaders to prove that they had ever done an' honest days work. — (Cheers.) They had had too much sway long enough, and the time had arrived when they should be exposed, and their nefarious conduct in leading their fellow men into difficulties revealed. When an honest, hard working mechanic drew attention to the way in which these men were acting, and by constitutional tried to secure the reform of J a certain institution, how was he met ? With howling and derision. The question was never allowed to be debated. The closure was applied to strangle discussion. Like the boycott, the closure was nn-British and tryrannical. — (Cheers). One Victorian statesman, who had departed, and was forgotten and unmourned, had ruined his reputation by introducing it. It had been used too freely amongst the working men, but they were now beginning to feel that those who had so often used it for their own ends would lead them astray unless they were got rid of— (Hear, hear.) Victoria was indeed a paradise for the working men until these individuals developed, and he urged the labourers to allow wisdom to prevail, to exercise a little common sense in the conduct of their affairs. Then the present state of things would pass away, and the colony would revert to the position it held twelve months before. Notwithstanding all they had done, the pioneers had been insulted by those men who were reaping what they had not sown, and enjoying the fruits of the exertions of the men that they now flouted. (Cheers).