ODIOUS COMPARISONS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 257, 23 October 1908, Page 4

ODIOUS COMPARISONS.

To the Editor. Sir,—Before leaving the above subject I feel compelled to remark that, judging from your appended note, yo.t have quite missed the point and purpose of my letter—to put which alongside of your leading article and then dub me as narrow-minded fs a joke that even a Scotsman will be able to appreciate without the proverbial operation to his brain-box. 1 find it difficult to accept your article a s a reply to the Re;. Harper; it must be read'conjointly with others which have appeared in yo ,r columns within the last few months," an 1 lead to the conclusion that the prayer of the average Xew Zcalander is that of the publican of old: "Thank Cod we are not as other men." But aren't they! I endeavoured to show that th"y are, and in doing -o made no assertion without stating a case. National pride is pardonable, even commendable; but arrogance, a distinctly different trait, nc intelligent person can justify (I am pleased to see you didn't attempt). It is arrogance which presumes that while the Government or municipal authorities can make work for a few navvies there can be no poverty in the Dominion f and need be no unemployment; it is the same that (to use an understandable I simile) believes, or professes to, that every puppy iu Xew Zealand is of a pure-bred variety, but the same species in other countries belongs to the class of which Kipling wrote it was " terrier, mastiff, pug, and hound in one small mongrel blent." In the process of time we find a contradiction to every theory, but, so Tar, none to the fact that "tlie poor ye have always with you." New Zealand is, no doubt, a s plendid country, but as it supports only an infinitesimal portion of the world's population the colonial " broad-mindedness" must allow that—there are others.—l am, &c, . NEW-CHUM. [■' New-ehum" is either a practical joker or prejudiced against colonials and their ways. If he is joking we can understand him and measure whU he has to say accordingly. Reasoning against a prejudice, however, ;.; too much like fighting against a sludow: one would grow tired without obtaining the slightest satisfaction.— Ed.]