TIMARU HARBOR BOARD.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2348, 26 April 1892, Page 4

TIMARU HARBOR BOARD.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —According to your report of the ■ last meeting of the above board the majority of the members are still determined to ignore the all but unanimous voice of the people. Kings have lost their heads for similar conduct in less j democratic times than ours. Does this handful of tinpot aristocrats imagine that they are greater than kings 1 If they will not pocket their pride and carry out the wishes of the people, or resign, I fail to see why they should not bo put on board the Mana and carried ten miles out to sea and pitched overboard. If we are to tolerate such conduct we might as well be in Russia. I care not who is right or who is wrong in the matter of shingle-shifting. The real question at issue now is whether our public affairs are to be conducted on democratic or despotic principles. Vox populi vox Dei. We have not all reached that phase of intellectual development essential to the smooth running of the machinery of democratic government, or such men would never be found in places of public trust. But attempts to foist despotism upon us can only lead to anarchy and the disorganisation of society, and therefore it would be much better to make short work of would-be despots than abide the alternative of having the world overrun with carnage in a few years. The toiling masses who produce the wherewithal to pay with are in reality the only ratepayers. Although they may not pay a farthing directly, it is out of the sweat of their face that all has to come, and they are accordingly most interested in how money (which represents the productions of labor) is j spent. According to Mr Teschemaker, \ it is only these who live by the fleecing j of labor who need consideration ; those who fleece most to be most considered. We suffer more through worshipping the golden calf than the Israelites did. It is time that we should break this idol and look at things as they really are. The working classes have the power to rectify all the wrongs in the world if they were true to themselves, and they have on their side the power of divine righteousness, before which no power in the world can stand. —I am, etc., Working Man. [The suggestion of a “ Working Man ” is a good one. To drown the shingle shifters would undoubfedly settle the difficulty. It would appear, however, that nothing short of such an extreme measure can settle it.— Ed.]