THE Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, JUNE 4, 1892. THE SUBMERGED TENTH.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2365, 4 June 1892, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, JUNE 4, 1892. THE SUBMERGED TENTH.

The latest scare got up to frighten the people of this colony is General Booth’s “ submerged tenth.” The frightened capital and the other bogies have all given way to the terrors of this colony being Hooded with the scnm of London. At first we were told that General Booth had completed arrangements for sending 5000 of his people to this colony. This swelled immediately to 50,000, but then wo were told he was only negotiating with the shipping companies as to cost. Later on the Government received advice from the Agent-General that no definite conclusion had been come to with regard to General Booth’s immigrants, and later still it was stated that the general was sending a delegate to this colony to endeavor to get more favorable terms from the Government. The whole thing was ridiculous; there was nothing in it, but it has supplied the Conservative Press with a peg on which to hang fearful indictments against the present Goyernp(enf,. “Any port in a storm” is an adage well understood in the Conservative camp at present; anything that can bring discredit on the Govermuent is good enough, whether ft is right or wrong, true or false. The truth, however, is coming out, and it is this : When General Booth was in this colony the Premier said there would he no harm in trying his scheme on a small scale, and under certain restrictions. No understanding whatever had been arrived at between the Government and the Genei’al excepting , that the Premier said t!fat jf tlie tiemn’ai decided on New Zealand a certain of land would be allotted to him on confjiticpj that the experiment should first of nil he ifttßlbeva of the Salvation Army of this e°joiiy.- is reasonable, and we cannot see how anyone could object to it. But it would appear that a private individual has offered the General laud to the north of Auckland on which he can settle his people. If so, what is all the noise about '! If any private things fit to give or sell land to Gen,ei’a| iqv rhe pip-pose of his settlement, can the Goyerijho.ehi st-gp it Certainly not, without outraging" rights of property. It is the first article in’ the Conservative creed that everyone has a right to do what lie likes with his GWil, and they at least cannot be the first to say to anyone “Yon must not give your land for the purpose of settling General Booth’s immigrants.'’ Now, here comes in a very ticklish question for our Conservative friends to answer. They UI’O the groat upholders of the rights of property; they believe in the freehold tenure; they denounce perpetual leasing I ' ’ - tu.svtu ownership of land as contrary ' uia '- ’iU«i n g ;ind so on, and they to national we,., - 0il(J ] uly a solemnly declare that cw - • . right to do what ho likes with his .. Just so; then the freeholder of land has a right to give or sell it to General Booth, and no one can stop him. With the Crown grant of the land this right was conferred on him, and unless we pass new laws, which would sap the foundations on which the freehold tenure is built, no one can prevent the freeholder from settling on the land the vilest wretches the earth has ever produced. The question, therefore, is : Is it right to confer on any individual such power as that i Is it right that one man can say “ General Booth can camp on my laud,” though the whole colony may he opposed to it i We do not think it is ; wo think the State should he the owner of the land, and if it were so it would bo impossible for General Booth’s immigrants to come into the country against the will of the people, ( Of course there is no rise in discussing this now; the land has been sold and the owners can do what they like with it, hut w r e think this very fact—the fact that one j man can bring the general’s “ submerged | tenth” into the colony in spite of all' opposition—will convince any one that looked at from a national point of view private property in land is wrong.

THE GENERAL AND THE GOVERNMENT. Notwithstanding that it has boon shown that there is nothing in it, the Conservative organs still insist on bringing in the Government guilty of conniving

at the introduction of General Booth’s “ submerged tenth.” Of course that would not have surprised us ; anything is good enough for them if it tends to throw a slur on the Government. “ All is fair in love and war,” and politics, and if they think they can weaken the influence of the Government by such tactics, it is only to be expected that they should do so. But we are surprised at working men and others exhibiting such terrors at the prospect of the establishment of Salvation Army settlements. The General when he was in this colony gave us an assurance that none should be sent to us except persons who had already undergone training in England. They are not to be picked oft' the streets and flung ashore in New Zealand, as one would imagine fr >m the language often used by those who object. The General has at present farms in England, and on these men are being trained to habits of thrift and industry. After undergoing the necessary training the intention is to send them to some colony where they are to build permanent homes for themselves. Bat let it be remembered that the Salvation Army would not lose sight of them even then. They would be placed under strict discipline on the land allotted to them, no drink would be allowed to enter the settlement, and their material and moral welfare would be looked after as diligently as possible. To this the Government added the condition that the experiment should first of all be tried with members of the Army in New Zealand, and to this the General agreed. The understanding was, so far as we remember, that the settlement should be partly prepai’ed by New Zealanders before any of the English contingent arrived. Now, we confess wo cannot see any objection to that scheme Under our immigration system just as bad as General Booth’s immigrants can be were paid for and imported into this colony by us. We remember seeing a crowd of men and women taken out of a Workhouse in the Old Country; driven along the street like a mob of sheep; placed on board a ship, and sent off to New Zealand. We saw these with our own eyes. They came to New Zealand; they were let loose about the colony without any restraining influence, and now where are they 'I Absorbed into our social system, and very possibly some of them doing well. Now, a few years ago we did this—we paid for bringing such men and women as we have referred to into the colony. Yet now, when s great religious organisation undertakes not only to bring them free of cost into the colony, but also to provide for them, and keep them under proper discipline, we go into hysterics lest the contamination may hurt our morals. Really, our morals must be very sensitive to contamination if they are to be hurt by a settlement of men and women placed somewhere in the North Island, under semi-military discipline. We are not sure that so much purity, innocence, and honesty, exists amongst us at present that we need put on such great airs, in fact, we doubt whether the worst of the General’s proteges could teach us a great deal. Under these circumstances, the prospect of a Salvaiion Settlement in this colony has no terrors for us, and we must say that wo look upon the working man’s objection to it as puerile and nonsensical. Above all, the working man should be the last to join in the cry. He ought to look upon these poor creatures as the victims of a capitalistic system whose tendency is to reduce labor to slavery. He ought to regard them as his brethren, and rejoice prospect of seeing them lifted out of thp misery into which they have been crushed by the greed, and avarice, and selfishness of capitalists ; make common oapso with them, and do all in his power, to help them, But the working man is just as selfish as another ; he is afraid of them as competitors in the field of labor, and hence his objection. As long as the working man yields to such feelings as this, as long as he regards own his class as his enoujy, jjs J.qng as he fails to see that it is to his own nitercst tq assist all his fellow-men to mount to a higher social plane, so long will he remain the misorabje machine tfiat he is at present. Rut tfie moment fie realises that all God’s pqqr are hm brethren, anfi upon making a common cause with them to secure their proper share of the comforts and conveniences of civilised life—-that share which has been produced by his own labour—then he may look foward to a brighter future,

THE REV, T. A. HAMILTON. Th.h Rkv , T. A. Hamilton hi ay feel well satisfied with the ovation lie received at the farewell social tendered to Id'U last Wednesday evening. The audience was large and certainly most kindly disposed towards him ; the arrangements were excellent; the presentations were numerous and valuable, and everything, except the speeches made by those on the platform, was all that could be desired. The speeches were the worst wo have hoard on such an occasion. chore was not a man who spoke who 'could not have done a great deal better; but it seemed as if a —"i lit of laziness had seized them, b ,onu p- ‘' from tiny lack of hcartinot, it was plain, - ■ _ "'«r)arodnoss. ness of feeling, but from uiijj. • * One sentence only was uttered whicu seemed to us to come up to the occasion, and that was when the Rev. Mr Prestop said “ there was no better clergyman in Canterbury than the Rev, Mr Hamilton,” That we believe. There may be as good, but none could be much better, Mr Hamilton is no ordinary man— is a good preacher, an industrious, faithful worker, but above all he is a man of the world, who understands the world and treats it as a clergyman ought. This he owes in a great measure to Ilia early training. In early life he mixed in the world, and became conversant with its many peculiarities, and this, as well as his own sound common-sense, has rendered him capable of understanding the weaknesses, foibles, and shortcomings of Inman nature better than he could otherwise have done. But beyond this his great kindness of heart, his intense sympathy with his fellow-men, and his unbounded charity towards his neighbors, are qualities which won for the rev. gentleman such unstinted esteem. The world is callous-hearted and indifferent in many ways—there is not a great deal of the milk of human kindness in it, certainly—but, bad as it is, when it sees a man living up to his principles—doing luito others as he would wish others to do unto him —the world appreciates him. The world does not like to put its own hand very deeply into its

own pocket, but it has no objection to i others doing it; in fact, it likes it, and j admires the man who does it. Mr Hamilton’s genial, kind, and generous disposition, coupled with unostentatious manners and sectarian inoffensiveness, therefore won for him the esteem of everyone with whom he came in contact. To his congregation he was guide, philosopher, and friend. No one could enter into sympathy with the worries and troubles of his people more readily, and it was not therefore to be wondered at if he was beloved by them. To other congregations he was inoffensive and helpful wherever he could render assistance, he entered heartily into every action calculated to improve the moral tone of the district, and we are afraid we shall not look upon his like again. To this paper he was always kind, and very frequently did not hesitate to put himself to the trouble of supplying us with items of news. We have to thank him for a great many favors, and it was very kind of him to mention us in his farewell addi’ess. We do all in our power to keep out of the paper all objectionable matter. Many items which other papers publish is kept out of our columns, and it gives us , pleasure to find that this was noticed, and i borne testimony to by the rev. gentleman on the eve of his doparturo. We desire to thank him for this, and for many other acts of kindness ; during his many years in Temuka, and i we wish him health and happiness in his > new home.

* TIMARU TRIFLES. The liquor traffic question is getting rather i sultry in Timaru just now. Hie Rev. Mr ; Gillies with characteristic vigor launched i out at publicans, police, and the licensing 5 committee at a recent meeting of the ) prohibitionists of Timaru. He was ; extremely warm on the subject, and was : taken to task by the Timaru Herald, which i accused him of having said that a previous ; understanding existed between the com- > mittee and the publicans to the effect that ; the publicans were to take no notice of the lectures of the committee, as they were ’ meant for stage effect, so as to please the I public. To a very bitter criticism of his ’ utterances Mr Gillies replied with equal E acerbity, and greater ability, denying the ) accusation, but the Editor of the Herald i reproduced the reporter’s short-hand ) notes of the rev. gentleman’s speech, and b we must confess he had the best of it. Mr r Gillies words were capable of the construc--5 tion put upon them by the Herald, but at , the same time we believe that he did not , intend that such a meaning should be - deduced from them. The Licensing Com- , mittee met yesterday, and after the 3 business was over the chairman “ shoved his oar in ” to an extent that will be felt. 1 After a brief review of the case he said r that “ what the Rev. Mr Gilles did say t was a vindictive and miserable untruth, 1 (Some applause). He challenged Mr t Gillies to prove his statements or he must i be branded as a vindictive slanderer. (Ap--3 plause.) A vindictive slanderer, that was t what he called him, without hesitation, 3 and he did not want to twist and double s his statements. He did not know why t Mr Gillies should have made such states ments at that meeting, except that he . may have thought that by throwing in e a lie or two extra the proceedings would pass c off with greater eclat, or else that he would s propitiate the ‘devils in the depths of hell,’ s the actions of which his friend Mr Wil--0 Hams seemed to know so much about. 3 That was enough. He repeated that the t Bench accused Mr Gillies of being a 1 slanderer, and even though a minister of :1 religion, a liar, and perhaps if he did not ;i retract he would find he would yet ■, have to do so in the Supreme Court.” s Now everyone is the custodian of his own f honor, and if the Chairman of the Timaru •, Licensing Committee thinks it consistent e with his dignity to use language like s this, there is no x’eason why others should s complain. One thing is certain : the use t of such language will not damage Mr s Gillies ; it may annoy him, but it will do 1 hinj iio Ipxnq, for people will believe in e the truth qr falsehood of Ips statements i. according to their prejudices. As regards s the threat to go to the Supreme Court, i Mr Gillies wilt no doubt appreciate it. 3 Men cleteriqiimd to the Supreme s Court would not indulge in violent ret torts like that quoted above, so we may s rest assured thei’e is nothing in that. W e ) ax'e not satisfied that anyone of the parties . concerned has come out of it very creditably, but it is always the way when men descend tq nmd slinging, for some of it must always ‘'