CORRESPONDENCE. "TRAITOROUS NEW ZEALANDERS."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 120, 29 August 1910, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

"TRAITOROUS NEW ZEALANDERS."

To the Editor. Sir,—Your leader of Thursday on the subject of "Traitorous New Zealanders" is very much to the point, and will be appreciated 'by everyone having the welfare of "Gods Own Country" at heart and who wishes the trutli and onlyj the truth. There is no other country under the sun where such splendid chances and opportunities are available for those willing and able to take advantage ol them. And yet, iSir, it seems a tar-off cry to have to go to Scotland and an ex-New Zealander to cite a case of nestfouling. We have men here in New Zealand who are doing it every day. They are telling the world through the j Press Agency and also .by private letters to their friends that New Zealand is financially rotten andi unsound; that [capital is 'being driven out of tie land, and a thousand and one other things that may dwell in their imagination. Many of those men who do this kind of tiling occupy a place in our Legislature. You at matters national from a merely personal and selfish stand joint." That, of course, acts as a sort of apology for them, and I trust the Opposition memtiers who never weary of decrying Nevr Zealand will take your words lo heart. It is perhaps the kindest way of dealing with them. But one cannot expect a comparative stranger to have a good w.ord for the country he flies through, when we find 'he is supplied with such thoughts'by the many misrepresentation* made by the present members Of the Opposition. I have been in many lands, and I am certain from my own observation that no country in the world offer.-* such inducements to the working man a* 'New Zealand, rightly described by our late Honorable Premier, li J, Seddou. as "God's Own Country." As Mr. Thos. Mackenzie said at Te Wera: "Some people wanted a work less job, a frothless beer, and a speechless politician," tout 1 think Mr. J. McCluggage struck the right cord when foe said that, "Any man could be practically independent in ten vears if he chose to take advantage of the splendid facilities for taking iip land, the advances to settlers, and the muchabused co-operative work system, which provides work for many who would otherwise be thrown upon the labor market or charity." Every country must of necessity have some floating labor population, and no mortal man can devise a scheme by which you can claim or control the same laibor section of the community, and that very reason has brought thousands from the Mother Country to the shores of Australasia. Many of us are here to-day for that very reason. The labor problem is a, disturbing element in the Old World politics today, and the many British colonies are making strenuous bidis for the surplus labor of Europe in general. Instead of our politicians making statements that are exactly on a par with those to which you take exception in your leaderwell, who is to iblame? Surely not the mdn who took'thefn at their word? No; but those who make the statements and stav here. Your concluding sentence is the true ideal: "The average go-ahead X..w Zealander believes in his country, and if he is a decent mian he does not invent untruths about it. We want as many Britishers, as we can get, and we can get them by telling, the unvarnished truth about this country." That is so. -I am, etc., ' NEW ZEALANDER. Stratford, August 20.