MR HORNSBY'S SOCIALISM.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8484, 11 July 1907, Page 5

MR HORNSBY'S SOCIALISM.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—The member for Wairarapa. Mr Hornsby, in his reply to Mr Massey in the debate on the Address-in-Reply, is reported to have said, "He was pleased to let the country know he is a Socialist." Every elector in your district ought to weigh carefully this statement, for I submit that in consequence of such a statement, he is not a fit and proper person to represent an intelligent community like yours. If Mr Hornsby made the statement in question in ignorance of what Socialism really means, then, because of his ignorance, he ought not to be a member of a Legislature, where, by his ignorance, he may do harm, and I submit that, being a Socialist at all, he ought not to have a seat in the House. For the benefit of those who have not studied Socialism, allow me to give the principal planks of their socalled policy. Socialism is synonymous with collectivism, which means everything is to be owned by the State, land and all it carries, all means of production, and distribution of same; covering food and clothing; marriage and the sacred ties of fatherhood and motherhood are to be swept away, and in their place children are to be brought up by the State; theatres are to be free; free carriage for persons on the railways. Nine hundred and ninety-nine indviduals out of a thousand in New Zealand, under the above regime, would be slaves subject to the orders and caprices of the loud-voiced, pushing, unscrupulous, brazen-faced politicians who by dint of these qualifications managed to reach the top. Is this a consummation to be desired? Let it be clearly understood that under Socialism every man or woman who, by dint of industry and thrift, has managed to save something for their old age or for their children, would be robbed of the same, and everything would be swept into the State coffers to support the lazy portion of the community. All true statesmen who have the welfare of their respective States at heart have endeavoured to rule so as to avoid revolutions (now advocated by the Socialists), and one of the means, if not the highest and chief means, of ensuring peace and tranquility in a State is to make provision for the security of the lives and property of the several individual units of the people, and these statesmen have endeavoured to encourage thrift by example, advice, and legislation, so as to leaven' the mass of the people with men and women who have something at stake., and thus to act as a check on, or counterpoise to, the reckless, the thriftless, the lawless, and the lazy portion of the community. The keynote of their policy has been the freehold, with all its privileges and responsibilities. Socialism means retrogression, whereas individualism means progression. I challenge Mr Hornsby to name a single nourishing civilised country at the present time that has adopted Socialistic ideas and laws; but I can name many States, as in India, where the State owns all the land; there the units are of one dreary, dead-level, without ambition, without hope, without industry, without energy, without, initiative, without morality, ever looking for the directions and orders of their masters, the slave-drivers of a corrupt Government. I challenge Mr Hornsby or any other Socialist to name any great discoveries or inventions produced by a State and its slaves. To individualism we owe such discoveries as electricity, anaesthetics, etc., and inventions like the sewing machine and steam engines. Servia has practically no poor, because each man farms his own land. On the other hand, the peasant of Macedonia, under Turkish rule, have to pay to the State one-tenth of their produce, and they are in consequence poor, squalid, dirty, and practically slaves to the Turkish Government. In short, Socialism means slavery for the great bulk of the people. If Mr Hornsby or any of his friends reply to this letter, I hope they will send me a marked copy, as I have not the pleasure of reading the Age every day.—l am, etc., GEORGE WILKS, Farmer. East Tamaki, Auckland.