PROTECTION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2395, 6 September 1892, Page 2

PROTECTION.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —To accept as gospel all that you assume aud assert, and carry on the discussion by briefly answering the undebateable questions you propound would be turning the other cheek with a vengeance. I decline to give you such an easy victory. You must win your spurs before you get them. I consider the subject of great public importance, and on that ground would like it discussed fairly on its bearings ; but if you or your readers are tired of the subject I don't want to press my opinions where they are not wanted. I have not said a tithe of what I can say against Protection, but I am agreeable to this being my last if you wish it so until you take up the subject again, and I will answer your footnote as concisely as I can. The brotherhood of man is the dream of civilisation, and we must press onward to the realisation of that dream or go backward. But lam quite willing to discuss the question on purely selfish principles. There are a great many people who seem to think that there is nothing between blind selfishness, i.e., aggressive selfishness, and self abnegatiou, but there is the justifiable selfishness of self-deforce, and there I take my stand. Indeed lam rather fond of giving smack for smack. If you could show me ho»r we could with Protection smack those countries that you say are smacking us without injury to ourselves, I will with all my might help you to smack them ; but you know charity begins at home, and we must see first how Protection would affect us working men. You say men in Germany work 16 hours a day, including Sundays, for 2s 6d a day, and men here work 8 hours a day for from 6s to 10s, therefore we cannot compete with Germany. Just so. If men here would work as long hours for as little pay we could compete with Germany; but we like short hours and long wages, and we need Protection. How much ? To simplify it we will put our wages at 5s a day, that is 100 per cent, difference on wages, and nearly 115 per cent, on working hours. Therefore we require 215 per cent Protection to put our capitalists on a level with German capitalists and our working men on a level with German working men. Walk into my parlor said the spider to the fly. We all know the difference between long hours and short hours, and between five shillings and half a-crown; but we don't all know that an increase of Customs is equal to a corresponding decrease of wages, but some of us do. If we had 100 per cent, protection piecework and the sweating system would soon bring us to accept the long hours. Protection is very nice for embryo millionaires who who want to take a trip home by-and-bye to be made a C.M.G., but these Cash Made Gents, have been smacking me in the face since ever I was born, and Freetrade is one of the weapons I want to smack them with. If all working men were of my mind we would make respectable working men of them all in a very short time. Not to encroach on your space I will close, but will answer your questions in another letter if you please.—l am, &c, Working Man. August 31st, 1392.

[Yes, please do. Answer our first question, and that will be enough for one letter. You indulge so much in the " spread eagle" style that one point at a time will be enough. Let the brotherhood of man alone. If it can make you let it alone we do not mind telling you that we believe in the brotherhood of men, but have no hope of seeing it. Aristotle held that the slaves, that is the working men of his day, were not of the same flesh and blood as free men. From slavery the working men were raised to serfdom. It took centuries to bring this change about, and then serfdom existed for nearly 1000 years. About 300 years ago serfdom was partially abolished. Under serfdom a working man could not leave the land on which he was born, and until 100 years ago he could not leave the parish in which he was born for fear he would become a burden on the rates of any other parish. Even that is practically in existence in New Zealand to-day, for if a person from Oamaru should become a burden on Timaru ratepayers in the hospital the Oamaru people must pay. Thus gradually the working man's freedom has been extended, till in this colony about three years ago the one-man-one-vote made him completely free. Over 1800 years ago the brotherhood of man was preached in the Sermon on the Mount, and for a time the Desoiples practiced it, for they held everything in common. They were but a small[community,they had to live,they had to compete in the race for life with the worldly, and they dropped the brotherhood of man for the "survival of the fittest." It has taken ages to reach the present, portion, and it will take time before the idea of the kx>therhood of man is reached. It will be reached by slowdegrees, but meantime we must live, and the question is: : What is best for us in this colony* The brotherhood of man has nothing to do with Protection or Freetrade, so please let it alone. Remember, at any rate, that the people of Now Zealand are free—perfectby tree, and that they can have any kind of Government they like. We are tho «u»t. free.people on the face of th.e, and if we do not make our the happiest it is entirely our own faul,t. —Ed.]