OUT & ABOUT

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 32, 13 October 1911, Page 3

OUT & ABOUT

By EWAN WiEE.

Another week has been added to * the majority, and once again I have to get my allotted space tilled with what speed I can. Some men are too big for . the space at their disposal, but that man never was I.

It is with difficulty I cover the ground pegged out as mine. Oh, could I but sing An Ode to Spring, Or some such thing, Whose joy could mine exceed? But poets, 'tis said, Ate born, not made, And. alas, I'm afraid Tbe capitalist system has killed out the breed! Ay, and I notice that our friend Edward Tregear has been speaking on the question of the "ca' eannie" policy —not in regard to the output of commodities, but in regard to the output of babies! According to Mr. Tregear, capitalism is likely to kill out not only the poets, but others of more utilitarian professions. Mr, Tregear, the "N.Z. Times" tells us, "enumerated a long list of humanitarian measures passed by .his friends in the Liberal Party." What that long list consisted of the "Morning Mist" does not say, nor docs the "Daily Drizzle" give us any further enlightenment on the matter, but both of them inform us that Mr. Tregear, speaking of the condition of the N.Z. worker to-day, said: But the lot of the working father and mother was cue of grinding self-sacrifice and poverty, and he sympathised with them too much to suggest that it was their national duty to keep the State alive. And one reading the foregoing is left wondering what in heaven's name the Government did with that "long list of humanitarian measures" placed upon the .Statute Book by tlie Liberal friends of Mr. Tregear? Edward, I believe, is a good churchman, and the Church teaches that "the tree is known by its fruits." But perhaps, after all, this is the exception that proves the rule. Perhaps ! * * * But what's gone wrong with the conditions of service on the New Zealand Government Railways? I haven't heard that wages have been reduced or the hours of daily service lengthened, and yet our contemporary, the "Railway Review," is shouting out that things .have come te such a pass that the men will have to do something drastic if the Government doesn't mend matters soon. Well, it seems it was only yesterday I read in "Fry's Magazine" a eulogy of New Zealand labor conditions in general, and the condition of the New' Zealand railway workers in particular. Here is a passage from the article in question (pace E. Tregear) : —• I do not wish to cause a rush of railway employees to the other end of the world, but I remember two guards on a line that I frequently used. One was a gentleman rider over country, and would frequently get an afternoon off to ride in a steeplechase; the other was a noted shot, and generally got his holidays, by a curious coincidence, about the time pheasantshooting began.

The writer of the above also told the readers of "Fry's Magazine" that "the New Zealand workingman keeps his horse and trap, or maybe his yacht." Sphere is much virtue in that "maybe" ; Jbut Avhat had be been drinking that he fepuldii't tell t'other from which?;

Among the make-up pars, in the "Morning Mist" the other day I noted the following three "Items of Interest" : — Phil May left £803. Henley, the poet, left £849. Milton got £10 for "Paradise Lost." It might have added, Joe Ward got a- baronetcy for God's own country. Wasn't that an item of interest, or did Joey make it a matter of principal _* * *■ SI The sole fruits of Mr. Fowlds' six years in Ward's Cabinet is a penny increase in the graduated land tax. It is said in some circles that it was this fact drove home to him the futility of his efforts to do anything worth doing in such an environment, and Joey's taking a hereditary title was the last straw that broke the ass's back —I mean drove Fowlds out of the Cabinet. List! Fowlds E&CgUstur. I dreamt of fame, as one who came To 'spouse the People's Cause; To win the soil for those who toil, And equalise the laws. I did hot ask a lesser task, My heart beat high with hope, But Joey Ward, my bus'm _pard, . Soon soaked mc with his dope. I. vowed right through the Squatter crew My Single Tax to drive, Till they, uhe fruit of toil who loot, Would find no piace to thrive. Till cent, per cent, their increment Unearned, I'd make them yieldAll! that would cop them on tne hop When adding -held to held. My little pills —reforming Bills — The Cabinet wouldn't swallow. And soon 1 found my barque aground In water very shallow. How sad the truth: "The dreams of youth Are tickle and false as any!" The visions fair 1 raised in air, Joe bought them for a penny. But thump tho Thingummy loud and long, _ And wallop the' What'S-its-namc; For Cabinet's all a what-you-may-call, And Parliament's —just the same! We don't know where we are, so there, Let's join the crowd and cheer The "Tiling" that rules a nation of fools — The Baronet Premier. ..us * ■$ I see the Sydney "Bulletin" makes desperate, efforts to be funny at the "Worker's" anti-conscription policy, but its laughter has an unhealthy and insincere ring about it. Its replies to our array of facts against conscription are of the nursery order. It keeps crying hysterically: "But what if the Japs, and Chinese come down upon us?" much in the same way as the nursemaid cries "Baa!" to frighten the naughty child. And wasn't it the "Bulletin's" own poet, Henry Lawson, who told us that' the Australian warjary was "Baal".?.

Seems to mc it's about time the Chinkies came down, upon Australia, if the Brisbane "Worker" is to be believed. There have been quite a number of strikes in the Commonwealth of late, and the employers-have never been without Englishmen to scab on Englishmen, or, if the "Bulletin" must have it, Australians to scab on Australians. But, look ye. The Chinese laborers employed on plantations owned by European capitalists in German Samoa recently went on strike for white men's wages. This was refused by, the management, and" there is" likely to bo trouble industrially in Samoa, as the Chinese (says the Brisbane "Worker") won't allow their countrymen to scab, and the native Samoaus object to exploiters making a profit out of their labor. Will the dreary, weary Chinaphobians on the ''Bulletin" staff please rub their watery olfactory organs over these words again: The Ghinese won't allow their coisntryrsion to scab. Now, then, my.. "Bulletin's" God's Englishmen, who seem so anxious to get your btsSSet in the yeller feller, what do you think of it? » * j That reminds mc that the other day I read in one of our newspapers the speech of a clergyman who had been a missionary in China, in the course of which he repeated (I use the word "repeated" advisedly) the following impassioned sentences :—« W r as there ever greater chance for the Church, for all the Churches of Christendom, than at the present moment? Political affairs were tending to further open up a land hitherto closed too long against the efforts of civilisation and of the Church. The great Empire of China would soon be opened up to the entrance of Europeans in a way in which it had never been before. He went on to assure his audience (chiefly old women of both sexes) that the condition of China is "appalling." That there is no land so opposed "to civilisation as China," and a lot more out of the same basket. Well, I just recently finished reading a book on China, and I can corroborate the reverend raconteur. It is a benighted country. Why, only think of it! There was not a brewer nor a lawyer in air China till God's Englishmen got in and took them there with them. What density! Doctors there are not paid unless their patients recover. How stupid! And if a bank breaks in that God-forsaken land, "all the clerks and the managers have their heads struck off and thrown into a heap with the books of the firm." Hoav crude! No wonder that during the last five hundred years the Chinese have not enjoyed the sensation of a. panic through the failure of' § native banlsj.; It is

high time such a state of ignorance was wiped out. We can understand now the Westerners' anxiety., to open up China effectually and bestow on it the blessings of civilisation, and plenty, of it. * ■ But, unfortunately, there are always two sides to a story, and I find from a book written by a Chinaman that, foolish fellow, he is rather proud of his benighted country. He spent some years in Britain, this uneducated heathen, and in his book he presumes to draw comparisons, and comparisons, as has been said-, are odious. In this case, as you . will see, they are also odorous. Speaking of Englishmen, this insolent, ignorant Chow says: —~ They will live weeks and months without touching a mouthful of rice, but they eat the flesh of bullocks and sheep in enormous quantities. That is why they smeSi so badly; they smell like sheep, themselves.- Every day they take a bathe to rid themselves of their disagreeable odours, but they do not succeed. Nor do they eat their meat cooked in small pieces. It is ca,rried into the room in large chunks, often half raw, and then . they cut and slash and tear it apart. They eat with' knives and prongs; it makes a civiEised being perfectly nervous. One fancies himself in the presence of sword-s'wal- . lowers. The opium poison, which they brought us, they do not use themselves. But they take enor-. . mous quantities of weski;oha and shang-ping-Chu (whisky and champagne). The latter, is very good. They- know Avhat is good, the rascals. It is because they eat and drink so much that they never rest.. - A sensible civilised person does nothing without due consideration ; but these barbarians hurry with everything. Their anger, however, is only a fire of straw; if you wait long enough they get tired of being angry. I worked for two of them. The one Aye used to call the "Crazy Flea," because he Avas ahvays.jumping about; the other Aye named the ''Wooden Gun,"' because he never went off, though he was ahvays at full cock. What can you say to a man, and that man a contemptible Chow, avlio writes in that illiterate, unlearned, unenlightened, inexperienced, uninformed, and uninstructed way about England and God's Englishmen? But, stay, there's more of it: — They (the English) certainly do not know lioav to amuse themselves. You never see them enjoy - themselves by sitting; quietly upon their ancestors' graves. Thsy jump around and kick balls as if they were paid to do it (sic). Again, you will find them making long tramps into the countrj'; but this is probably a religious duty, for when they tramp they wave sticks in the air, nobody knows AA'hy. They have no sense of dignity, for they may be found walking with women. They even sit doAvn at tlie same table Avith Avamen, and the latter are served first. Yet the women are to be pitied, too. On festive* occasions they are com-

pelted to appear almost naked b<£ fore every man that likes to looK «tt them, : and then they are drag*. ~ god around a room to tlie accom" - paniment of the most hellish mtisioThere! - -whose people C«ls write in tbat fashioii of -Christian England deserves to be civilised—therd is no other punishment I know, .of "h&# bad enough for them. So, Onward, Christian soldiers, On to heathen lands, Bibles in your pockets, Rifles in your hands j And if of' your sermons* ' * They be "having none,"' Spread the "blessed tidings"' With the Maxim gunl &$, and the explosive bullet. These ft* the most approved of civilised civiliserg* * * ■*'',■ ._* .'■■'. • Scott Bennett's ''Bayai*nets and Boys" knocked a few of oup: Slaver Party Conscriptionists all of ..* heap. One of the bluggoos said to mci that "the views expressed by the;Je<#turer on the evils of militarism,' like' his views on everything else, were extreme." He (the bluggoo) said: -'■ *I don't think being a soldier unfits $v man for playing a man's part in &__& labor trouble that might arise." ..,/. Why do so many of our opponent? start their statements of objection toour policy or principles by-telling Xkf that they "don'Jp think?" . r That fa<# I shoxdd fancy needs no emphasising. My dear Labor brother didn't thinK that being a "soldier unfitted a* mail playing "a man's part in any laboi trouble that might arise." Praps not,but you trust the heads of the Dofence Department to see that h6 doesn't get the opportunity. To show, how much sympathy a soldier ma# have for the unfortunate workers, let mc recall the case of Captain Travera Falkiner, of the Connaught Rangers. And, remember, the captain took part', not in a strike, but in an unemployed march. <■ r . The incident took place 'just six -years ago. You remember, when the Leicester unemployed set out to march' on, London, they were led by a mysterin ons horseman, who cheered them on by making eloquent speeches on the wrongs of the workers, urging them to keep to their purpose and invade Par;* liament en masse. Remember also* that Captain Falkiner was in disguise,, nobody knew he was a soldier. But it' was afterwards discovered who the' mysterious horseman was, and the gal«< 1-ant captain was called to account fojft making political speeches while an a"<£s tive officer of the Army. Captain Fak kiner promptly sent in his resignation') and in doing so told the authorities the War Office some home trues. H# v compared the fault he liad committed', which had brought down oil him ths displeasure of Ms chiefs, with_ th 6 "extravagance and excessive convivial* ity" of the officers' mess, the gambling at cards .and -billiards, notr only. - week day's, but on Sundays, as well as.' other habits which ''ill - befit ' and gentlemen," but of which, thoug'hV' well-known to, so far had,«,calfe4 forth no. condemnation from authority...' If such things' : " ; we're"" ligr held, declared CaptainVFalkiner,v,;.:. Good-bye to all honourable en-... dcavouf in the Army'■;" goodbye- tor -all feelings of sympathy with the; sufferings of our less fortunate ieU low-creatures; and good-bye also to the sanctiby of • tho British home, and let Britain embrace" "at onco a code of morality such as is making our aristocracy the contemptuous laughing-stock of Europe, and the. destroyer of munition's reputation for upright moral principle and good-taste; ■ Captain Falkiner told a Leicester pressman that his experience with the un* employed of the city had given him a new view of social relationship, and made him realise as never before tho brutality .of capitalism. \ But Captain Falkiner # man's part," he resigned, didn't" he?, Indeed he did, but then you see, he" didn't belong to tho New Zealand Army. He was a volunteer soldier j New Zealand's Army is made up of pressed men who cannot "resign" until the Defence Shylocks have extracted their pound of flesh. " ' '• Fellow-worker, the Class War is. the only war that matters for you! The battle for econemic emancipation Is. the only battle worth while to tBS workmg-class. Got into tho Army of Revolt! To be a worthy soldier thorei*. in calls for no less courage and endur*' ance, both mental and physical, and ia infinitely more honourable and giv-ea birth to a purer patriotism than any,- ---\ military campaign tho world yet had | seen.