In Defence of the Working Man.

TO THJ JSDITO2I.

Dear Sir,— l feel that "Old Settler's" letter in to-nights paper must be answered, as it is the most libellous ctrubion on the working men and their wives and families in the Dominion that I have ever seen. Is "Old betticr'' in his second childhood ? One would think that he is, or is at least a candidate for "Porirua," for in pewinft sw~n an epistle "Old Settler" shews i it ac has no idea of the cost oi uvin& u.ic. I can assure him as a working man who does not drink, bet, gamble, or go to any amusements that it takes me all my time to make ends meet, let alono put anything by for a rainy day, and 1 have a wife who makes every stitch of clothing for my children, and I am sure I earn every ponny that I get in wages and never feel ashamed when I get my pay. If "Old Settler" can tell me how to livo cheaper, as well as I do now, for I insist on plenty of good food for myself and family, I shall be pleased to know who he is, and am always willing to learn even from a man who writes in the manner he has done if he can teach me anything. Here is a detailed statement of expenses in my house for two adults and two children per week: Firing and light 35., meat 75., groceries 125., milk 2s. Cd., paper 6d., rent 10s., insurance Is. 6d., bread 35., vegetable 25., total £2 Is. Gd. If a man's wages are £2 Bs. per week he has 6s. 6d. per week left to buy beer, finery, attend all amusements, and buy clothes, boots, and household necessaries, and put by for a rainy day. God help him. And he doesn't earn his wages ! But I notice merchants with small profits can live in a better house, that I and my horse and trap are visions of the distant, very distant, future. One thing I agree with "Old Settler" on re whole meal bread, but I think that his structures on the working class are not logical or truthful, and that when a man writes in the strain that he has done he should be man enough to sign his name and not sign himself under a non-de-plume-. — Yours truly, H. ROBINS.

Sir, — I was both amused and disgusted with the letter written by "An Old Settler" in the columns of to-night's Herald. Your correspondent evidently knows very little of what he is writing about, and a great deal less of the doings of the working classes. One would think on reading "Old Settler's" letter that the workine classes of New Zoaland were nothing but a race of weak and puny people who think of nothing but of spending their earnings in drink and gambling and in general wasteful pleasures. If your correspondent is really "An Old Settler," he must have settled in the middle of the bush, and has just broken loose, for he surely will not deny the fact that the working man of New Zealand is as good a stamp of humanity as can be found in the wide world, and I think I am safe in saying that there is not to be found anywhere a more sober and industrious lot of men than the New Zealanders. As for saying they demand more wages than they can earn, the statement is nothing short of a gross insult, that from a person who evidently never had to work for his living, or he would never have written such a heap of trashy rot as appeared in your columns to-night. I would like to inform "Old Settler" that the working man of Wanganui at least knows the value of the food he has to work for, and the recent correspondence re the price of bread will show him that the working man is sober enough to know when he is being imposed upon by those who supply the adulterated food and half-baked "bread "Old Settler" writes about. If the price of bread is not exorbitant, how is it that a recent genuine advertisement informed us that a local bakery business was making enormous profits daily? I would like to inform "Old Settler" that at the present high rate of Hying it takes a working man all his time to live honestly and make both ends meet, and after paying his household accounts and rent there is mighty little of his paltry^ wages left for beer and bookies. If 'Old Settler" will open his eyes and look about him he will find that it is not the working classes that spend their money in beer and gambling, but men who are a class by themselves and cannot be called working men. In conclusion, I would like to inform "Old Settler" that the working man of Wanganui do not require such advice as his, as they are sober and intelligent enough to look after their own interests, as their attitude in the present bread squabble will prove-I am, etc., Qp