CORRESPONDENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 June 1920, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE P.P.A. AND THE GOVERNMENT. (To the Editor.) Slr,~l"see that Mr. Masaey's advance agent made his appearance in Stratford recently, blowing his trumpet about the Influence he and his P.P.A. squad ha,d on the result of tho general election and on politics in general. In fact, according to his statement, he waa the only lump of clay that w«s able to atop poor "Old B|l!" from rolling into the bottomless n|t of politics, where he and his Party would be no. more. It says very little for those great Reformers who put In twenty years of their lives begging of the people of this country to give them a trial to enable them to prove to tho world the progressiva legislation they had concealed in the grey matter under their scalp. Mr. Elliott no doubt did his utmost to slander and misrepresent anti-reformers. But I honestly believe he had just as much effect as a dog woud have by barking at the moon. This was conclusively proved by the Stratford and Bruce elections, where the F.J.A. worked with nil tlielr might, but to no purpose. They may Hiank the poor organisations of the Liberal and labor parties- rather than the P.P.A. Influence. An Howard Elliott Is the onlv person who Is profiting by P.P.A. propaganda there Is no trouble in discovering who is financing Howard Elliott, as he always sticks up for the money bags, and always finds fault with the honest working man. We don't blame Mr. Howard Elliott for slandering Ireland and Irish people, because it Is his nature, and also It is one of the Tories' methods of campaigning, and, quite naturally, their hired mud-sllnger must pursue the same coursa.. That there is crime committed In Ireland we admit, but, thanks be to God, those crimes are not committed by Irishmen Mr. Elliott tells us he is not against the Catholic Church, but against the Catholic people to keep them out of politics. Well, at the present time we are fully one-seventh of the population, which would entitle us to between eleven and twelve members in Parliament, whereas In reality we have only two members, and we are told that there can be no taxation without representation. Then, I suppose the only course open for us Is to-re-fuse to pay taxes, or else demand special representation, something on the Maori principle. We are saving the State something like £3511,01)0 In the education bin alone. We have proved that our schools achieve resulia as good as the State schools; In fact, In most cases better. In spite of all this the Government is pleased to deny us the smallest morsel of justice, although with respect to building roads and bridges and other works they will tell you that they are only too pleased to help those that help themselves, and If In other respects why not In oducatlon, when the present system of State education Is condemned by all creeds, which Is proved by the number of private schools established In' New Zealand.—l a«n etc,, JOHN DICGINS, Inglewood, June 14.