MR GLADSTONE ON THRIFT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2046, 15 May 1890, Page 3

MR GLADSTONE ON THRIFT.

By means of Edison's phonograph 1 Mr Gladstone addressed on a recent Friday a meeting of many thousand members of the Mutual Building Association in New York. The message was enthusiastically received, as not only was Mr Gladstone's voice reproduced but the distinct periods «f the breathing pauses were heard. The message is as follows: " 10, St. James' Square, London.—The purpose of the meeting on the 14th May, I conceive to be summed up m two words—selfhelp and thrift—and I cannot, although much occupied, refuse to send to it a few words of congratulation and goodwill. It is self-help that makes the man, and man-making it the aim which the Almighty has everywhere impressed upon creation. It is thrift by which self-help for the masses dependant upon labor is principally made effective. Eor them thrift is the Bymbol and instrument of independence and of liberty; indispensable conditions of all. permanent human good. But thrift is also the mother of wealth; and here comes a danger into view. For wealth is the mother of temptation, and leads many of its possessors into a new form of slavery more subtle and net less debasing than the old. From this slavery may all lands, and especially all lands ef the English tongue, hold themselves tor ever free." —W. E. Gladstone.