SOME POLITICAL SHAMS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1847, 8 May 1884, Page 2

SOME POLITICAL SHAMS.

to the i:nirou. Sin,— This is a funny woild. Well, no ! I do not moan that, for when one looks into the Cieitoi's woiks he is cmnplctoly lost at the gteatnoss of his wondeiful woiks. What I mean is that man is a great sham, and the greatest sham of all is the " poor man's friend." Well, perhaps the '• religious "'man in as great a .sham. Ido detest " lehgious ' men. In a few words I will tell you why : In the whole com se of try life, of all the many " 1 eligious" men I knew not one or them was leligious, but I havo met many men who weie not "leligioiib," but unknown to themselves they weie religious. It will take moi e winds to explain to you my leason for abhorring the men who paiade themselves as the poor man's friends. The first tune I took notice that the poor maii'.s f i lend was a humbug was a long time ago, near fifty yeais ago. The Manchestei men were then the poor man's friends, but I did not believe in them. I will tell you why. At this veiy time when they, the Manchester men, Cobden, Bright and others, were shouting broad and wide that the Tones weie the oppiossoi-> of the p >or men ; at this very time the Toiy Go\ eminent of Sir liobeit Peel was m office, and his Toiy Home Secietaiy, Sir James Graham, was bringing in a Bill (the Factory Act), and canicd it too. The Factoiy Act was a blessing, a boon— mine than th.it it was the embodiment of a piinciple that the woiking man's inteiest and benefit was to be consideied. This, the fiist I'ill of the many that havo since followed, was brought in by a Tory Government, the oppressor of poor men, and, would you believe it, it was strongly opposed in the House of Commons by the : Manchester membeis who weie the poor ! man's fi tends. Moie than that, when the onclosino of Macbineiy Act was bi ought in, an Act to save lives of «orkmg men, the Manchestei men opposed it; they said you must not inteifere with capital and labour ; a pi etty saying for a Libuial man to •xiiy, Wheie would labour be if capital was to have uncontrolled power ? The real fact, of the matter was, the Manchester man caied nothing for the poor man ; he had a hatred to the class abov e him ; he wanted to pull them down and laise himself up. What he wanted was the class above him to be pulled down, and the class below him to be kept down. Well, Mr Editoi, that was many years ago, and I had foigot all about the Mineliester men till about ten yeais ago, when in this country, this New Zealand, the ablest and greatest sham of all that ever I lead or heard of appeared on the stage. Sir George Grey airived fiom England, and stumped the cnuntiv as the champion of poor man's lights ; talked in a wild, random way that ho was a determined enemy of the poor man's oppressoi ; denounced the English aiistociacy as lobbeis of pooi men's inheritance. Woll, even suppoMiig they were, how could I believe that Sii Geoige Giey was tiutliful oi earnest in his sayings, when shoitly before that I had lead a speech he had made m S. George's Hall, Liveipool. You must undci-tand, Mi Editor, that Liveipool is a Toiy constitnencv. Well, Sir George there talked to suit his audience. lS T o talk theie of English landloids owning the countiy ; he did the vory revere. There was a statue of the late Loid Dei by — the Tory of the Tories—he drew attention to this statue of the dead Earl, and talked of what a great and good man ho was ; thus, in an indirect way, pleasing Tory listeneis. But George did not get into the English House of Commons, he would there have been a minnow among the tritons, and would have been a very small man indeed. So in his disappointment and rage out lie conies here and would destroy everything, upset the whole fabric that society is founded upon, overturn the progiessive wisdom of centimes, and laud, us in confu>ion and wildne&s. How can I believe in Sir George Grey when in our House of Repiesentatives he denounces the land holders of New Zealand as rascals, or something to th.it effect, when I know that it was he alone that was to blame for the large estates > Nay more than that, lie went out of his way and did a thing which he ought not to have done so as to create these very landed estates. How could I believe that Sir Gcoige was honest about Patetere ; he must have known that if he had placed poor people on it that they could only have descended down to barbarism. He must have known that to save themselves from starving they must have lived upon fernroot and eels, and to save themselves fiom going naked they must have worn mats. Happy homesteads ! rubbish. He wanted a political cry and had to create one, no matter whether it was honest or not. Mr Firth, of Matamata, is not a poor man's friend. I mean not a sham one, but he is and will be the creator of many happy homesteads. I hope his land sharking will pay him ; he is entitled to a large return, and it will be a pity if he don't get it. Mr Editor, there are big shams and small shams. We have small shams amongst us. Now, there is a certain person, a good citizen, an honest man, an industrious man, a teinpeiate man, a good husband, shows his children a good example, and altogether if the world were all composed of such as he is there would be no use for policemen in the country; but for all that he is a political sham. I will tell you how. Ha for years was writing in your paper about that Patetere land transaction. He gassed away in the usual style about poor men and happy homesteads, and do you know, Mr Editor, although I believed and knew he was wrong, yet I gave him credit that he himself believed in what he was writing. He himself showed me he did not. Blowed if he did not let the cat out of the bag himself in his last letter he wrote. He himself said in this Jester $hat he wanted a bit qf Batetere for himself, sq all this tinie he was shoujjing for the land^ for the pq >r man it was for himself he wanted it. — I am, &c,, Harapepe Bachelob. Harapepe, May Ist, 1884.

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