Lords and Labourers.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 94, 22 April 1893, Page 11

Lords and Labourers.

For one-and-twenty long years I have worked and watched and waited to ameliorate, so far aa my humble etforts could do it, tho condition of the most down-trodden class of my fellow-countrymen—my brethren at the plough. Ono-and-twenby years of persecution, of the scorn and hatred of the rich and great, of the petty tyranny of squire and parson—and now ? My efforts are crowned with a success which I hardly hoped for in my wildest dreams. I have lived to see the labourer become a power in the land The ranks of selfishness and class privilege are broken and routed, but the enemy has not yet given up the contest in despair. He is wise enough, to abandon his old attitude, compounded of tyranny and neglect, and now he comes fawning and smooth-tongued, saying, 'We are your friends; we wish you well ; oar interests are one ; lot us make common cause ; join us in defence of our common livelihood.' This ia the attitude which the landlords, and, following their example, the tenant-farmers, are taking up to-day. While I have breath I will raise my voice to prevent my brethren, the labourers, from falling into thia skilfully-baited trap. The labourer's interesb is that of the farmers and landlords ! He should join with them in defence of a common livelihood ! Yes, when the mouse can lick the cream from the cat's whiskers ! They forget, bub we do not, the days of barley-bread, of,'kettle-broth,' of crusts burnt black and scraped into the teapot to make a xcup of tea ; they can forget these things, but we cannot—they are burnt into our braina with living fire. Wo can poinb to graves three feet long in the churchyard, where our little ones lie, perished for tho food denied by their callousness and selfishness, and with the aching sorrow in our hearts we cannot forget, nor trust them, for all their fine words and promises. The labourers will follow their own chosen leaders, and will not) be led away by lordly flattery. They have their own Union, by means of which they have done much in the past twenty years to raise their position, and which has work before it yet, That work is not light or unimportant. Parish Councils must be established, with power to acquire land for allotments and small holdings, to erect labourers' dwellings, so that we may get rid of the accursed system by which the labourer's home is at the mercy of hia employer, so that if he leaves his place he has to leave his cottage too; and we have to secure such a reform of tho Poor Law that the worn - out soldier of toil may end his days in peace and comfort among his children and friends, and amid the happiness of home. Nemesis is at) the door of those who in their selfish ease and sofb living never regarded the cry of the poor. Ruin is upon them, and they will fall, unmissed and unregretted, to give place to a newer, brighter state of things. I do not in the least regret the blight which has come upon the presenb agricultural system of England. Sharp diseases require sharp remedies, and if only the present depression can make a root and branch affair of the fungusgrowths of feudalism and class privilege which have for centuries choked tho tillers of the soil, I for one shall count it gain. Bub I will never, if 1 can help it, permltJ the labourers to be drawn into a trap, however daintily baited, which has for ita object the bolstering up of a pernicious system.—Me Joseph Arch, in '"Tho New Review.'