Original Correspondence.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1813, 16 December 1902, Page 5

Original Correspondence.

(We do not identify ourselves with the opinions expressed by our correspondents. TO TUB KDITOR. Sir—Strange as it may appear, it-was only yesterday I read yojr report of my Tarras address. My reader had not thoughl it worth sendiug after tne. Your report and the strictures in your leading article of same issue are about as fair as any sensible person would expect from an Opposition journal viewing nil things tied lonian with a jauns diced eye'. I only write to correct a few (I am sure) unintentional errors, which, I think should n it pass unnoticed, even at this late hour. First t»f all you siy, *At that period he (myself) used his influence to get the runholdeis to break up their estates for the <jloae settlement of the people on the land.' Tnis ia nonsense, the runholders of Central Otago never got that length, and iny mflu-. ence would not have gone far with them if they oad. What I Baid was " that I had all aluug taken a leading fjpart in having land opened up for settlement, in getting the Government to break up the runs, to which the pastoral tenants held on to with angry tenacity, treating everyone as an enemy who dared to think of acquiring a single acre from the immensa areas they held at peppercorn rents.' These may not Le the exact words I used, but that is what would have been set down bv a friend who wanted to give sense of what was said, and was boiliug down to, say a fourth. Again, 1 am made to s;y, on Mr Seddon's authority, that Great Britain could adopt a Pension Act s:milar to ours *at a oost of £2*>o,ooo per annurr.' What Mr Seddon said and i repeated was £8,000,000 per annum.' Britain h*4B over 40 times our population, and the sum quoted by you is but little ovei what the pensions coat this colony last year. Then, Bpeaking of the Advances to Settlers Act, you make me say— * The benefit- of the Act has more than compensated the colony for the entire debt the Seddon Government had incurred, some £12,000,000. This should be : • The bene* fits conferred by the Act, direct and indirect in the lowering of rates of in erest, had probably been instrumental iu reducing the amount that had 10 be sent away from the colony as iuterest on its private indebtedness by au amount equal to iuterest on the entire debt,' etc., as above. Onc6 more, instead of Switzerland deriving a « revenue of £20.000,000 annually from her tourist trsflj \' it should be that tourists ppend that sum there.' I am made to ask • were the electors going to k lock those men on the head.' This is not right; I spoke of the attempt to knock the Government policy—the Governs mint measures—on the Head, but not • men.' As to the system of co-operative lab r on State works : What 1 said was, that I had conversed with nearly every engineer that had been in charge on the Otago Ceutral since the Co -operative system began, and f-muct them generally agreed that the work w is carried en as cheaply under that system as if let under contract. I also instanced eases where under the contract system previously obtaining on the Otago Central, subcontracts were lee at half-schedule prices. I spoke too of the double purpose served by State works as carried out by the present government—as public works in the ordiuary sense that must necessarily be constructed, and, a3 regulating under the co-operative system the labor market—actiug as a safety attachment to it under temporary dep f e«sion. I said that it gave employment to those who would be physically unfit to work for contractors, and to many who would otherwise, in times of depressioa be roammg thu country, aod bringing the rate of wages down in other classes of labor. This is very d ffj'eut to what you make me *ay. You havj -he supported the Farmer.' L:fe Insurance Bill.' I know of no such bill. What I said was that I supported the Employer's Liability Act, but that I would advocate the Government pushing the Acci* lent Insurance Department it has created, as I was sure that it could, after a little experience, reduce premiums to a fourth of cnose now charged by private companies. As to the Farmer's IJuioo, I tried to make it clear that I was uJt »g inst farmers nor the legitimate objects of the Union, but 1 could not subscribe to the platfotm drawn up by the Wellington oonfarence of dele* gates*from branches of the Union, without subscribing mydelf an out-and-out Oppositionist. I also made it clear that the platform wa3 not dravrn up ;n the interests of the greut tu»jjrity of farmers, but against thtm. That the .aid piatform was the etseuce of the old Oppo ition political creed, under which they nearly ruined the colony, and that it was quite evidently drawn up by members of that discredited party, who, from their education and social positioD, were chosen as delegates.

I spoke of the ambition everyone is said to have ; to have a bib of lind he can call bis ova—aa ambition that by land" grabbers and land speculators is called ' noble,' and I detailed how that; ambition worked out in my own experience ; how, from a desire to have such a little spot, I, 23 years ago, acquired 320 acres, how that grew, by the purchase of the holdings of neighbors with similar ambitioLß, who discovered they oonld not afford to gratify them, to 2,500 acres freehold; how circumstances aroie that, after 20 years, made me sell. After the sale I had calculated how much better off I would hive been had I never been allowed to purchase a single acre, Li;b had I been able to lea/*e under the present Act, at the ratio of rent to'capital value fixed theieunder, and that I found I would have been £3OOO in pockit, and I p oolaitned my belief that the groat majority of farmers could they make similar calculations, would fiad my experience theire. 1 sbouH gladly traverse your leader, but I am already atking too much of your space, and there is Email gain in com ating the views of a newspaper through its own oolumus.

As to ' turnip lantern bogies,' you and your friends *re masters in their use—'extravagant b< rrowing,' (without saying what the money is borrowed for), 'general exUivaganoe,' (wi hout pn ticulariziug), ' iutresae in departmental expenditure,' (ignoring the natural increase in depari.work, and inconsequent revenue, and the new departments created entirely in tbe interests of the class o2 producers said to he chiefly injured); the incitement of the farmers to combine in order to 'checkmate tha union of workers in the tovrae,' when the real or jset is to use the farmers to formulate in their name impossible demanus —demands in the interests of their worst foes, and intended te emtiarass their best Mends : the Government, that has done and is doing more for their special bo iefit than for any other class ot the community. What are we to think of the candor <f those who get on the platiorm, and give nat tin tad praise to the policy of the present GoverLment, yet in the same breath abuse its author—ridicule unmercifully the man without whose ability, firmness—autocratic ra ; ure if you wdl— it could never have become law; who deify John M'Kejzie, laud his land legislation to the skies as the acme of perfection, yet privately subscribe to the platf.--.rm of a body that demands its destruc ion(

Is it in earpany, or i<>uoranee tha* you praise Mr Ef?rdman'« independent spirit, aod applaud his o jectioa to 'candidates cfcosen by the' Ministry of the day.' You are quite light as to the <ifference a change in point of view makes, Asr Hardman saw nothing wrorj;* in thU when he I was a Goyernnient supporter ; 60 will you when vour friends get into pow»r a(Q( j candidates are tumbling - ver eacfa ot ' her to " .. .u their interest. Before Mr Herdman came to Naseby in 1895, he was an Oppositionist. Mr M'Carthy, whose practice he bought, wu a Government supporter. Mr Herdman took oyer the Government work of the dis« trict, and felt it incumbent on him to be* oome at least subdued Oppositionist to start with. Theo came the '96 general elec« toon when Mr Herdmin became secretary to 1 John M'&eur.e.s CeaUai Committee, and

MILD GOVBBNMENT SCFFOBTEB. In '99 he took an aotive part in getting John M'Kenzo elected without opposition, and became PRONOUNCE" GOVEBDMENT SOPPORTER, In 1900, whea John M'KeDzie resigned, Mr Herdmau was willing to be Government candidate, but resigned in my favor, and though he didn't agrea with the Government choice, (Mr *Vm. Gum.), bowed to Mr Sed>, don's derision, and tried to get Guffie in, When Mr Herdman left Mt Ida for W«l« lington, in February, 1902, he was, as far as we know, a strong Government supporter ; but the atmosphere of Wellington wai too much for him—nearly the whole com* mercial and professional class there (upon whom he depends for work), are opposed to the Government, and be had go* so far in August, when the new elect jrates were announced, that Tho3. MacKenzie (agaiost whom he had been willing in 1900 to stan 1 in the Govornment interest), waited upon him as soon as the electorates were delineated, and suggested he should contest Ms Ida on the same ticket as he (MacKenzie) had been so successful with in 1900. The suggestion was adopted without demur, and Mr tierdman came down to Naseby strongly recommended by Mr M'Kenzis as an independent Liberal. Before hia candidature was halfway through, he had got a step farther, and waa an laDEPENDKn'T Oppose tionist. Where will he be this time three years ? ! It 's a mistake to suppose that the measures of the party are drafted by Mr Seddon, or at hia command, and that individual members must blindly vote for every provision, agaiust their convictions. What measures shall be brought forward are first decided by the Ministry in cabinet or in some oases by caucus of the party, but in every case the provisions can he altered or amended in committee, or by private conference with the Minister in charge, if the change is to better the MEASURE. I refer to changes suggested by supporters of the Government, not to those made by opponents, with a view of emasculation or murder.

Too great a Government following is unwieldy, but Governments gladly put up with the evil; to spaak of a strong oppo* sition as necessary for good government, and the framing of the best measures, is a device of the enemy ; to recommend diftricts whose interests have been served by the present Government, to return members to oppose it in tha interests of better Government, is an insult. I am, etc., John Ewing. St. Bathans, Deo. sth, 'O2.

In the report of Mr Swing's Tarras mee - ing, there occurred two small slip?, viz., Mr Seddon's estimate of what it would cost Great Britain to carry out an Old Age Pensions Aot, and that having reference to Government Insurance. These affected the principle Mr Ewing desirei to convey, not aj jot. In any portion ot his address, where the always difficult duty of condensation had to be resorted to, every care was taken that the sentiment of the candidate should " moult no feather." We leave those who attended the Tanas meeting to jud*e of the fairness of the report there ; such as that referring to the co-operative system of labor, the Farmers Union and the different departments originate I by the Government, which Mr EJwdag cited against us. His objection to the part touching the tourist traffic of iSwitz3rland, is surely an utterance of his, "from the teeth outwards" " damned "• but " we must speak by the card or else equivocation will undo ua." Mr Ewing has similarly attached the leading papers of. Otago. Tnesa have answered him so effectually, that we thought be had " closed down," but he lacks the virtue of adaptability, or else he would have stayed his hand from throwing the about him so undiscriminately, after having suffered political defeat so often. Id is always uupleasaut duty to grapple seriously with one to whom ono'a heart warmi. ant the high estimate the reporter formed of Ewing ap a political oaudidate, aud as a gentleman of culture will not be unsullied in ihis, his day of discomfiture. Reporter, ADVERTISING FOR A WIFE.

TO THE BDITOB. Sir,—Your contribuor of 9th advertising for a wife, ha* also set me thinking. The contribution in question evidently is the production of a, ' i waa going to say a man,' 1 will compromise by saying a male. He knows that there are many fine looking women in Cromwell, but is not sufficiently acquainted with them to know if they have the other qualifications necessary. Sir, being a woman, i accept this paragraph of the writer as an insult to our dignity and honor, ' not acquainted ' ; then why interfere in matterß he knows nothing about, if he is worthy to be called, and treated as a man, he should have made himself acquainted with the opposite sex; but uo, he seems to be a cynical kind of creature, looks at the form of the women, hut fails to look into her character, and then find that ' handsome she that handsome does,' is the motto for all good men, and is—what girl cares for the idle talk of gossips. Surely this conceited piece of manhood who seems to know bo much about us, and offers more information, k.nowa little or nothing aboqt ua «fom,en. Hear what the poet has said j ' Woman's love is holy, aud when 'tis kindled, ne'er can die. It lives through treachery and ill; to check the constant flow at times it may seem cold and hard. But yet it burns with love's undeviating ray, " And never from its idol do you think we girls or wcmeo (for such I am, girlhood days have passed by me ; in the waiting, in the waiting'. Appreciate m-U who would wish us to make love to them, and supplicate their interests io«us ? What would any good man, that a good woman would respect, think of such a oreation. 1 would uoc like to say, but not very much ; we want to be used for our worth, and if an affinity can no: be established between us, love cannot ensue, then it i 3 hotter far we part. Do not make marriage a mercenary or convenient condition. Ad your contributor seems to look at it, many do not sake to cooking or house work, 1 venture to assert thai we women of Uroms well can hold oqr own in either capacity We do wish to be elegent and aristocratic, for suoh attainments are akin to civilisation, but we do not hold theoretically and positively nor in practice, that such elements unfit us for wives and mothers. Quite the contrary. It is that spirit aid attitude of dignity that we women posat-as, that keeps mean rnen from their advances, and caus,e them to have to advertise in foreign pirts for a wife, .and thus re fleeting discredit upon us. We accept the compliment, and on our dignity and love of approbation is written : No mean man, need apply, as we are not in a position to keep a, husband. Yet to the good and the virtuous man we hold out our hands and hearts, and with the poet we sing : ' O ! My love the stars aj?e shiningLove is sighing. O 5 My love for th.ee I am dying, Yes, my love, for thee I dia. Vbb,4l,

-r, TO THE EDITOR. Sir.—ln your last issue, a contributor published an article under the heading •■Advertising for a Wife," upon which 1 would like to make a few remarks. Your contributor evidently thinks that the chief rea&oaß why men do not get wives, is because of the meddling of third parties, and the expense of keeping a wife when caught. I quite agree with him on thes« point*, hut he has overlooked another reatoo, which is th« evident tidhappiaeii

of many of the married men among our acquaintances, who unoongenially matched with some scold or slattern, pass a miserable domestic life, from which, for relief, the} fly to the publicshouse. Of course the husbands are often at fault as much as the wives, but the chances in the matrimonial stakes are so great, that many men prefer not to invest. Soma people say that a man shouldn't marry a womin until he knows her, and this is another thing that keeps down the marriage rate, for women are sum actors, that no man can be sure of really knowing one until the fatal knot is tied, and then the knowledge comes too late. Aa for advertising for a wife, 1 think, considering the great desire amongst women to get into what are sometimes called the United States, that any imn who descends to advertising, must be either a fool or a knave, or boih, and I should think that in most cases the advertiser is more likely to ruin some over-c>nfiding girl than to m ike a wife of her, or else he will use her letters for the purpose of destroying hor ch iracter or in disturbing her domestic happiness. Advertising for a wife is generally a dirty piece of business, or else idiotic folly. I know a little about the Oromweli case, and it was the latter.— I am, etc , Lykx.