POOR MR COATS!

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8356, 17 February 1913, Page 6

POOR MR COATS!

Oh,, dear I The wickednesses of Mr Lloyd George and his reckless colleagues seem to bo growing and accumulating. Lost Saturday we had by cable the painful news that because he believes that Socialism is “apparent in recent legislation” Mr Peter Coats, of Paisley, has deemed it advisable to revoke bequests of £SOOO each to infirmaries in that manufacturing centre. Now, is not this just what all the Tories predicted ? That wretched Insurance Act is probably the special socialistic enterprise which has scared Mr Coats out of his—generosity. We do not know how many infirmaries are losing the benefit of his philanthropy, but we sincerely trust he will be able to retrench sufficiently in that way to keep out of the poorhouse. Perhaps, however, we need not worry. As the “Lyttelton Times” remarks : “The name will be familiar to housewives, at any rate, since the family of Coats has been identified for two generations with the manufacture of cotton and thread. Three members of the family have died within recent years, and each of them has left more than a million pounds in hard cash, all drawn from the sale of the reels of cotton produced .by thousands of not over-generously paid workers. Probably Mr Peter Coats would not be distressed financially if he gave cheques for the amount, of those legacies now and got the matter off his mind. But it appears that he is going to count the money against the. threepences which be has now to pay under the Insurance Act for the protection in sickness and old age of the workers that he employs. _ Evidently another member of the family of Coats has the makings of a millionaire in him.” Nevertheless, the British Liberals will have to be muzzled somehow.