SHOULD PEOPLE COMPLAIN? OR, SOCIAL WRONGS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 67, 18 March 1908, Page 8

SHOULD PEOPLE COMPLAIN? OR, SOCIAL WRONGS.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—lt must be with much regret • that the people of this Dominion received the news of the defeat of the Unemployed AVorkinen's Bill, introduced; |by Havelock Wilson (Labour member I | for Middlesbrough, England). This l . means a serious thing for the workingclass in old England. In November I last the "Daily Mail" gave, a terrible account of the poverty that existed in' Sunderland. There were 30.000 people jin want. The scenes at some of the I j food depots for distributions are touching. Women, pale and thin, break j down and cry at the sight of bread for ' their children. And although the machinery for distributing relief is imi proving each day, there is undoubtedly I still a great mass of suffering untouched. In the Woolwich workhouse the place is overcrowded; 700 men had! registered at the offices of the local dis- i tress committee. Of the men who applied for work at the distress committees, GO per cent were under forty, but j 90 per cent were unskilled, casual, or l general labourers, for often they were j uneducated, resourceless, aimless, hopeI less. Solomon had said the destruction • of the poor was their poverty of intellect, of will and of character." Speaking . at St. Phillip's Church, Islington, the ; I Bishop of London said these remarkable ; words: "As to the poverty and inj equality that exist, personally I am ' ; convinced that we must all work toj wards equality of opportunity for j every son of God. It is alike bad and • ; wrong for rich and poor that there ' j should be such marked distinction be- ; tween the extremely rich and the ex- , tremely poor." There are two millions , jof people over 65 years of age in a , | very bad way, so it was reported by Lord I } | Aberdare's committee, and but of the , , above number 400,000 were paupers. In I . the course of any single year, also thous- , ands suffered in silence. When one reads ; that Lord Rosebery is reported to have j j said that Socialism was the end of all , things—faith, religion, etc., what re- , ligion can a country like. England be , guilded by? What would a heathen , think visiting England? I wonder. Is . England a poor country? The national j wealth of England is one billion, eight [ hundred thousand millions; the popula- j , tion, forty-three million souls. It would not do to take Lord Rosebery seriously | on the Socialist question, considering i - that dukes and lords have drawn in pen- j sions and salaries of positions, mostly created by their own class, in 25 years i 108 millions. No wonder Lowell had written— i •"With gates of silver and bars of gold. ' le have fenced my sheep from their ' Father's fold." ] Yes, we. Socialists see tho truth clear. ' The means to-day, by which one set of privileged children are secured against \ want, and "provided for," so that they , need never work for their living, even if their father dies, are precisely the ' means which keep other men's children poor and "unprovided for," even when T their fathers are living and working their I * hardest every working day. It will be | C a very sorry day for the workers of;? this Dominion if they ever allow Mr. ! Masscy's party to take over the reins r of Government. As sure as I write C these lines, I feel convinced that he is no friend of the people, only the class that are bleeding the life blood of the country. He speaks sneeringly of the r. Socialistic Government, yet he" poses as | \ the farmer's friend, and I have very 1 little sympathy for the so-called far- t mers who cry aloud about Socialism be- i ing "All right in theory, but breaking t down in practice." Yet I am astonished o to find these anti-Government Socialists l —free and independent, rugged, self-reli- c ant friends, the farmers—are seeking s Government assistance in re-sowing the t fields which the drought and fire have o devastated. Well! well! Masseyites, _ what a fall! State aid for workless, v landless, ruin the country. Ahr! ah! a Socialiflm all right in theory, but very t good when/it come 3to practice, re-sow- I ing tbe gras3, eh?"—l am, etc., t S. SPLLLHAK. T