TRADES AND LABORERS AS ONE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1494, 17 April 1886, Page 3

TRADES AND LABORERS AS ONE.

TO THE EDITOR, SIR,—Who is it that is depending upon the laborers ? I say all. Why should he be the first to suffer, because all depend npon him for a living 1 The Queen has to come to him for a living, and so have all. That is the reason all eyes are fixed on him so sharp ; that is the reason he is ground down so low. He is the best friend we have on earth, and why do we look npon him as though he had no feeling? Because we are high-minded, and we think he is a slave sent for ns all and has got no feeling. Ars not we, some of us, Pharoahs ? Have we not a right to crush as we like ? We think so, and we do so, and we mean to do so as long as he will bear it. But if he comes forward in a large body and demands his rights, we must let him have them, because we cannot get on without him. He earns all that we have to eat end drink, aid keeps us riding about when we like on our fine horses and in our carriages. We must snarl and growl at him! Do not teach him, or else ho will demand his rights, and he will get them too ; for if he likes to unite why he could get them easily, for we cannot get on without him. He would get to know that we were loafing on him and cheating him of what Providence sent for us nil. He must not learn that we are of the same stuff as he ; that one God made us all alike. That will not do. We have got our country Into a fine mess new, and cannot help it. If we try and help them out of it by making our own bank and paper money, the same as we give them leave to do, why they would pounce upon us like a kawtc and sell our estates, and our horses and carriages, and all we have got. So we must keep ourselves ignorant of this bank scheme, and must not preach tb >t doctrine, for if ,we do we shall get very wrong. Never mind the faimerorthe little tradesman, they are slaves too, or . they would help the man that they have to depend on for a living, and teach him how to act to get a living so that he can pay his way. That’s why we want the laws (not bankruptcy laws) altered : to put our fellow brother in prison, and rob him of bis rights which Providence has sent him to live on. My dear brothers, what are we thinking-about ? We have all got a work to do, and let us do it with a good will, that all may live by their labor, both rich and poor. Bet us all unite and put men in their proper places, and things will soon alter themselves. Men that will do justice to all are the men we want, and we must have them, if not we shall get from bad to worse. What have we been doing in such a country as this, where we have plenty and to spare ? Surely we have let the dog in the manger in, and we must one and all help to put him out. Come, let us like brothers unite and do it. We can easily do it m a land like New Zealand. Surely we have plenty and to spare, yet we have to relieve poverty. It is our own fault. Men •f New Zealand look to your own welfare. i a bad management somewhere, qnd let ns try some other way to get out of it. Surely we can find one man if we tried that would study the welfare of the working man, and let us bind him down to make laws to suit all the people and not a part of them; but to do justice to all, so that all can live. Our members like to go and do as they please, but I say, “ Stop, you are servants to tho people ; the people have to pay you, aud what have your returns turned out for them ?” Surely the ground must be very bad which they have worked on, for it is like the barren tree that bore no fruit on it. But we must not stop here; we must look out for something better than what we have

been hearing of. We must all try for our own welfare as laborers of tlie vineyard. There is plenty of work, and there is as much money as ever there was ; but where has the money got to? whose hand is it holding it from us ? and whose fault is it that we cannot get this money to p«y our way ? Surely there i* some bad management somewhere I Government works end farmers' works all have to be stopped. There are plenty of laborers that would be glad of work, and could do the work that is required to be done. We have good harvests, both ia corn and meat, so we do uot want to stop for that; and yet we are poverty-stricken in a land of plenty. It is a shame to the country that the people, in a land of plenty, have to cry poverty. There are some of the tradespeople who went the bankruptcy laws altered. What use is that to a lot of people who have not got anything, and cannot get anything, but who would be only to oglad to honestly pay for whit they buy t You little tradespeople, the laborer is your best friend. If he cannot get anything you have to suffer as well as be. Just look and consider among yourselves, Why cannot 1 sell and gel my returns the same as I used to do ? The reason is,, the laborers cannot get work, or else they would honestly pay you ; but the wages which they ought to get go to moneylenders, and are sent out of the country. It is & good trade for a foreigner to come or send bis money here, for he «ill get large returns for it, and the laborer is the man that suffers most. And will the altering of these bankruptcy laws make it any better ? Consider it over. If a mao has not got anything, and cannot get anything, how do you think he can pay ? Not by your putting him in prison I H« must live as well as you, and ha is the best friend that you have. If you study hla welfare, you will study your own at tha same time, for he is your upholder. If he cannot get work, you cannot get money. He has to earn the money for you, and you sell him what he wants for it. We want a reform in high places. Let us unite as men.—l am, etc., The Truth it is.