RADICALS AND TORIES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2295, 26 March 1887, Page 3

RADICALS AND TORIES.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Sir R. Stout in his speech at Marton took great pride in letting it be known that he was a Radical. If being a Radical is being good, then the Radicalsjought to disown him, for he is corrupt to the very core. The Grey Government, which stunk with rottenness, never did a more disgraceful act than Stout's Government did in passing the District Railways Bill. If you look into the motives which caused him to pass this Bill, and if Radicals are being guided by such motives, it is high time Radicalism, with all its dishonest exponents, was exposed and extinguished. I know that in a few years the poor, disappointed, miserable, dejected, starved, broken-hearted settlers will wish Radical, pottering Ballance had never been born. It is a pottering body, imagining it is setting the Thames on fire— and it is making political capital out of its scheme, and, in a few years, it will also make other capital of it. It will then pose, as a poor man's friend, it will propose a large addition to the Old Man's and Old Woman's Refuge, to shelter its own victims —the victims of its small, Radical, pottering, short-sighted self. But, Mr Editor, it was Sir R. Stout telling us he was a Radical that has caused me to take up my pen. I have something to say about Radicals and Tories, When I was a boy I lived in Ayrshire. The Duke of Portland was the largest landholder in the county. His tenants were all little kings ; in truth, if they went to Heaven when they died, you may say they were never out of it, for this world was Heaven to them. You will say— How was this ? My answer is short and effectual. He was a Tory; therefore he was Liberal. Mr Editor, my county was blest, happy Ayrshire. We had another great Tory landlord, the liberal-minded late Lord Eglington. He had extensive grounds round the castle. Every person, poor or rich, Jew or Gentile, could drive through his grounds, put his horse in the stables, and give it a feed all the same as if the stables and corn were his own. This was Socialistic doctrine in practice; the Radicals are all so in talk. When news arrived in Ayrshire that the good, the grand, the noble, the honourable, the highsouled, the feeling, the sympathetic, the far-seeing, the idolised Earl was dead, the people of all ranks were seized with truewailing anguish and grief. His popularity was not of the Radical, ginger-pop style, like Jonah's gourd, up to-day and down tomorrow. The Earl's character had goodness for a foundation. The foundation of the Radical's character is gammon; he uses gammon to work a dodge for his own benefit, such as a District Railway Bill. Mr Editor, do you find Tory masters severe taskmasters, and pay low wages, or radical masters go in for short hours and high wages? No, my observations has always been the reverse, in fact if you hear a servant speak of an old master with love, esteem and respect, you will find that master has been a Tory. Do Tory storekeepers give under weight and radical storekeepers give over weight ? I don't think it is so. Sir R. Stout, in his speech says there ("yill always be Tories and Radicals. he did not say so, he meant that according to the bumps on his head a man would be Tory or Radical. That is so, a man who is high in all the good bumps and low in all the bad ones will be a Tory, a man who is low in all the good lumps and high in all the band ones, such as vanity, falseness,acquisitiveness, high in grasping, low in giving, he will be a Radical. The late Lord Shaftesbury, a true patriot uul n colonial patrbt, one of the best of men, I don't know whether he was'a Tory or a Radical; any how if he was a Radical and there were more like him, Radicalism would be respected.—l am, obediently yours, Harapipi.