The Wairarapa Daily THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 1890. STATE HELP.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3476, 3 April 1890, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 1890. STATE HELP.

David Christie Murray, in his late lecture in Masterton, expressed a decided opinion as to theworthlessness of State help. He spoke from a wide experience of many careers he had observed in all conditions of society, ranging from the inmates of the

British poorkouse-to the mombcrs of the wealthy House of Commons.' The view he takes is one which has been frequently affirmed by many good and wise men in different countries. A greater lecturer even than Mr Murray, who hails from the United Stites, laid it dowius an axiom that selfhelp, not State help, was the hopo of the poor, An old English radical, too, William Cobbett, who was the mouthpiece of the working men. at the beginning of tho present century, was very emphatic in showing that however hard the State burdens fell on the .toiler, and in those days taxes were heavy and unequal, a man, by idleness and want of thrift, did himself a greater injury than any Government could possibly inflict. The men who make their way all the world ovorarc not those who Watoh the political barometer, who depend upon political changes, who waste time and energy to alter the incidence of taxation, or follow the business of the community more closely than their own private Practically, under tho liberal laws of this colony, all men are on an equal footing, and when inequality arises it comes because one man is

more industrious than another, or more intelligent in bis business, or more frugal in his habits. If, in a community like this, a hundred men to-morrow were started with equal means, under equal laws, and wijh absolutely equal opportunities, before 12 months were gone their condition would be unequal. A few, by personal exertion and self-denial, would become comparatively rich, and the many, by the absenpe of those personal qualities which carry success, would have lost much or all of the means with which they were equipped at the starting point. Some men are industrious and economical and some are not, and it is this consideration which determines the success or failure of their careers. The American lecturer, to whom we have already referred, held, that the nobility of labor could only be secured by self-i.eljva.nd that the test of good legislation as to lab.Qjf js its tendency to produce in the laborer tho B|)j;jG of self-help. Many new gospels are preached now-a-days, and we have in New Zealand advocates of those advanced social doctrines under which the Stats is invited' to opi) and control all lands, and, in thesyeet by.and-hye, all machinery,'and other means used in the production of wealth, The ultimate design includes also the abolition of the wages system and of the tender system, Tho man who waits for the nationalisation of the land to come to pass, find the other little pbanges wo have indicated, before fa makes a fair rise in life, will,

background. The existing conditions, taken as n whole, in Now Zealand, are as favorable asin any part of the ciyiliaed - \rorld, and the man who will adapttheniand depend.upon his own intelligence and industry for success will not' be disappointed. They are false teachers who lead him to look to the State for any material improvement "in his condition, and who, for the sake of his vote, lure him to negloct his own affairs,