PENNY-A-LINERS ARE A CURSE TO NEW ZEALAND.
TO THE EPITO'.t. Kjk.—X" rtembt tn well-meaning but ignorant politicians along with very many who were not ignorant. but were uiii.»vinc>pl«rl rogues in politic*, no doubt i\t nil but to Much nipu are ww indebted for having this New / '.aland, our beautiful and in many other ways thn best of liev,- countries, nil doubt at all but tn these men me we indebted fur beiner in a state of political, social, moral, and financial degradation. But these well-meaning apprentices and journeymen rogues of politicians would not have been such a power for evil if it had not been that they wore backed, supported and led astray by penuy-a-liners. At the present moment I take'it to be that the biggest gun in the penny-n-lino style is Colonus; them is a prominence given to his writing, they are in big type, and he write-; in such a way as would lead one to think that he himself thinks he is no small beans. I will take his last letter in the Weekly Herald, and I will show vou that he is skim milk, and writes about things lie know* noLhiner of. I n that letter he was trying: to show that ill n moral point of view wo were as pood as the people at Home. He wanted to show that we were no bigger rogues than the folks we left behind us Mow. I am not, going into that question, but I want to show that the principal reason ho gave in support of his assertions was completely wrong, and if he is wrong in one of his sayings, he may, we will conclude, be in many others. In his wanting to make out that the New Zealanders were not so very black, and that others xvem worse," he showed us the enormous iniquity of the English manufacturers of shoddy goods. I will give Colonus information, I will toll him that there is no iniquity or roguery in making shoddy goods. I will tell hirn that making shoddy cloths is a legitimate honourable occupation, the making of which is the supplying of a legitimate demand. One day I want tn buy a pair of trousers for fit j that day I think I will he better with one pair for £1. Another day I will buy two pairs for £1 ; that day I think I will be better with two pairs for the same money. Is it a wrong thing to make goods to" suit my wishes? Perhaps Colonus will say it is wrong to make shoddy goods and sell them for the real thing. IE Colonus thinks that such an absurdity could be, then I say he is a child in ignorance, and writes :\t iwlom of things he knows nothing of. When an Rugiish manufacturer gets an order for shoddy cloths, the merchant who reives him the order gives his order fir shoddy at a. shoddy price, there is no deception on either side. Wnen the importer give- !ii:- order to the merchant he orders shoddy and gives a shoddy price. When the colonial storekeeper gives his order to the ioipoi-ter. he orders shoddy goods at a xlioj-iv price \\ hen 1, the wearer, elect to wear shoddy goods, I also give a shoddy price : it p!e,i-:e.< me to have shoddy goods at ash ddy price, i would be an idiot, n*s, block-head, preposterous, Oolonna-like, if I v/cre to e-qi -ct substantial goods for shoddy prices. Mr i'.ditor, if Colonus were to confine hinged to such tinpot things as shoddy manufacture-, 1 would not take the trouble to contradict, him, but he en teas on to political questions, and there l)e becomes dangerous. Within the last six months he advocated saloon pastures tn men and their families tn bribe teen with capital to come out hero. Now, 'lien are not born with information and knowledge ; these are gained by observation. But thorn are men whom obsev. i tion never teaches ; they are boj'ii with buivps which make and li>: them as fools from the beginning to the end. They are not to blame for being such. The very fact of their being so shows that it is right, and for Nonjs purpose, that they should be fools. He would be a daring blasphemer who would say that there should not be fools. AVell, I say that any one at that late day when he had a dozen years of experience of the folly of looking to hair brained mad schemes and fads to give the country progress, then I say that any one no matter who, who could think that by bribing now with saloon passages was going to save the country, without, moaning the slightest reproach, but with the greatest and pity anc) love J say he is a fool; offering a, bribe it.sejf wag siilijcieiit to keep people ay/ay. Within the Hast six months he has also advocated that it would be good and proper to have an olected Governor. Now, I would quite understand say 80 years ago how one could advocte this ; but at this late day with all the seen and known evils of political liberty coming beforo political knowledge, I say that he who could argue for an elective Governor is a numskull. Politically aro we not enough rotten without adding more filth and political stinks '! The. knout in Siberia and Russia are very bad, but if you take the evils of political liberty being too late and the evils of political knowledge too soon, I say that the evils'of being ton'Jate aro 'as- nothing to the great evils of being too soon. Knowledge must come before power if power comes before knowledge then it is a tyrant.—Yours truly,
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Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2421, 17 January 1888, Page 2
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962PENNY-A-LINERS ARE A CURSE TO NEW ZEALAND. Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2421, 17 January 1888, Page 2
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