FLUNKEYISM.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 262, 6 February 1873, Page 5

FLUNKEYISM.

(To the Editor.) Sir, -If th«»re is one thing more than another detestable in human nature, it is the ever-prevailing desire on the part of a majority to fawn at the feet of an illegitimate minority — forgetting, in their blind subserviency to unmerited distinction, the free and independent principles of manhood. Alas that it should be so, and that thousands even in this colony are perfectly unconscious of the servility of their conduct. A better illustration than the occasion of the Governor's visit to Dunedin cannot be found. A triumphal arch was erected in honor of an individual whose greatest merit consists in being lucky, and in being appointed, irrespective of your selection, to a position of ease and profit, with but nominal duties to perform, and irresponsible to the people whom he presumes to govern. Now, if there is anything I hate, it is beating round a bush ; and, therefore, I tell the people of this colony bluntly, that as two-thirds of them were kicked out from home by various causes, but principally by monopolists denying them an equal right to exist, it looks very unbecoming for such pioneers as these, who have struggled against various hardship*, to see them scrambling over each other to get a look at a human being who, if he had been placed in a more useful position, would probably have succumbed long ago to the trials they have overcome. The worth of a nigger used to be youth and strength, and the real value of a man consists of his usefulness to others; therefore, every man who works with hand or brain is valuable to society, and those who do not are loafers on the community; and before an equitable division of property is agreed to by the most rabid reformers, I think it would be well to divide society into two classes — those who work and those who do not. Then form a co-operative association of all the bees, and force the drones to struggle for their own existence, instead of being quartered on the law-abiding and the ignorant. What is more despicable in a new country than to note the apish propensities of its most prominent citizens ; what rot to build grand Houses of Parliament if you have no men of common sense to put there ; what humbug to have ten or eleven governments, if the whole lot don't make one. Until I came here I had not much faith in the Darwinian theory ; but now I am a firm believer, for in no country is the monkey more visible in the habits of men than in this colony ; for besides your elaborate municipalities, you have the paraphernalia of a great government, founded from the views of dead men, in order to administer the affairs of 180,000 souls and bodies, and almost as many civil servants as there are adults capable of bearing arms — that is, if you ever arrive at that perfection of ignorance when recourse to arms will be necessary ; and Christianity backs you in the arrangement — that is to say, its learned professors deplore the evil, but pray for your success. I think it but right that man should conform himself to every position in life, honorably striving to acquit himself creditably of everything he undertakes, but not to consider himself a slave to the presumption of others, who, as far as their flesh and blood is concerned, are no better, only happen to be more fortunate, than their fellow men. Can the pioneers of this country so easily forget the degraded coudition of their countrymen, and the glaring extremes between wealth and poverty ? Are they not familiar with the east and west ends of every large city in Great Britain - the squalid vice and misery of one and the arrogance and luxury of the other? Oh, no ; it is impossible that time can ever obliterate the injuries which class legislation has inflicted on the struggling legions of the poor ; and those who have escaped from these never to be forgotten scenes of ignorance and want surely cannot grovel at the feet of a system which deprived them of an equal right to exist. Suppose the Bishop of London, appointed by some earth-born lord and .not by the people, were to charge the churchwardens of the various parishes every time he condescended to visit them, and the people were to fall down and worship him at each place, not for any personal merit, but because he represented the church, don't you think it would be silly and the people make great asses of themseves ? The illustration is a good one — take it free of charge ; and if you will only pay attention to it, it will do you more good than all the monkey performances of a life time. The miners as a body are the most intelligent in the country, but, unfortunately, true liberty is so tampered with for selfish purposes, that it is seldom correctly understood.. Free liberty does not mean that you shall take from a man what he has honestly acquired by industry ; but if you can prove that you have been robbed some generations back, of your jju t rights

and privileges by brute force, in this" enlightened age you must petition for their restoration, and if not granted, you must take them. The present lords of the soil could not feel the action more acutely than your ancestors did— that is if they were capable of feeling in that age. No man was intended to be a flunkey. The creation of the human family is the result of a natural law ; independent of the laws of kings, all are born with an equal right to exist in common with each other, and an equal provision was provided for all, in the shape of animal and vegetable matter. The earth being the producer of human wants, was not made to be seized by those born in advance, but for ' share its productions in common with' each other. All that man can save of these productions by his frugality and industry, rightfully belongs to him, but the earth we stand on cannot be claimed by individuals as property, any more than the sun and moon, because no man made them, therefore, in justice and equity cannot claim them. The earth is man's birthright, and sooner or later must become common property— don't think me mad — all property in land must be vested in the hands of a Government elected by the people for the people. What used to appear chimerical, is rapidly becoming a fact ; and what was considered Utopian in the^'past, is .being concurred in by the foremost men of to-day. Act like men and not like monkeys ; clo your duty in every condition in life like men ; fawn and cringe to no human flesh, simply show respect where respect is due, no more nor less. — lam, &c, Intern ationai-