LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 74, 20 December 1907, Page 3

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

THE TROUBLE IN NATAL. Sir, —As n South African I wish to thank j"6u for your sub-lcatler of to-day on the trouble in Natal. Your views are those which are held by all Natalians; with the exception of one—Miss Colenso. Upon her sentimental application Dinizulu was returned to Zululand against the otherwise unanimous wish of all Nntalians, by the British Government of the day. England now offers us assistance, but on conditions which we cannot, accept. We prefer rather to ask the help (if necessary) of our late enemies, the Boers —who understand the natives, as the natives understand and appreciate them. General Botha suggests reform in Natal Native administration, but his country has not had to labour under the trammels of Exeter Hall, which Natal is determined to throw off, now that r,ho has the support of her neighbours, and I am glad to say your paper. There is no more loyal colony than Natal, but she is always misunderstood in her dealings with her natives (who so largely outnumber the whitos), by "those mischievous politicians who are safe in their homes thousands of miles from Natal, and are fortified by an invincible ignorance of South African conditions," to which .'you refer. Wo shall soon have one in our midst. It is refreshing, therefore, to read an article written even furthor away from Natnl than England, by one who knows what he is talking about. —I am, etc., A NATALIAN. December 13, 1907.

LABOUR IN POLITICS. Sir,—Your correspondent, C. H. Chapman, is rather amusing when ho tries to back up the so-called' Labour party by saying that there is no essential difference between the Ward and Massey parties. Ho is quite right j but let him show what difference there is between the self-styled Labour party and the Liberal or Tory party. There is no ossential difference at all. In the Federal House, where the' Labour party hold the balance of power, we find ■ thorn keeping a Protectionist Government in office, a Ministry which would bo improved if replaced by monkeys. The Labour party have bo principles beyond transferring a few more industries from : the individual to the State, the solution of the problem is not to be found in this direction at all. I am a hard-working man, and I spend a good deal of timo and money in the cause of real reform, but I warn the workers to beware of tho bogus Labour party.—l am, etc., E. STEVENSON. Hastings, December 17.

.Sir, —I hope that in the interest of this city and the Dominion the Hon. T. li. Macdonald, , Chairman of tho Wellington Harbour Board, and his! twin 'brother, the Mayor of this city, and their friends will not^be allowed to "extend their crusade against public companies by getting possession of the Patent Slip, and thus preventing the Union Company and others getting a permanent and lasting footing in this port. Surely there cannot be a more striking commentary. on the glaring inconsistency of some of tho speeches made at the banquet given to the secretary of the Company by prominent men of Wellington, and reported by you a week or two ago. There arc about fifty miles of deep water frontage to this harbour, and after about 70 years' possession by white men there is only about a mile or a mile and a half at the outside effectually and profitably occupied. All tho rest of the foreshores are in much the same condition that they were in a thousand years ago; and yet there'are not half a dozen harbours in all the world having greater natural advantages than this one of ours. I would like to ask these two prominent men on the Harbour Board by whoso .authority or who gave them a mandate to abolish or obstruct all, public companies in this part of the Dominion as they arc evidently bent on doing, and who gave authority or the power to say, as thoy do, that no man and no_ company of men shall own one foot .of tho, 50 miles'of foreshores of this magnificent harbour of ours,- no'matter what vast sums of money he or, they/.niay be prepared to, spend ,on industrial enterprises on its shores. If it were not for public companies and their enterprises Great Britain would be today one of the smallest and most povertystricken countries in Europe, and our Dominion would be a French Settlement like New Caledonia or the Ne'j- Hebrides. Thero would have been no East India Company, no Hudson Bay Company. There would'have been no great-South African companies with which Cecil Rhodes of immortal memory was connected. All would have been complete and utter stagnation.—l am, etc., ■ ARGUS. December 17. 1

THE EIGkT DEVILS OF SOCIALISM. Sir, —With your kind permission I. would like to comment upon the monstrous caricature of Socialism contained in a contribution to your issue of the 16th irist. under tho above, fantastic heading. Mr. George Willis docs not tell us what the eight devils of Socialism are, but he describes the three main planks of Socialism as land nationalisaState control of all the means of production and distribution, and the abolition of the marriage tic. Tho fact that he mentions Socialism in connection with political planks shows that Mr. Wilks lias not the faintest conception of the real meaning of Socialism. ... Socialism is.no mere political creed, and cannot be fully expressed by* any code of laws or. social state. Whenever men. and women have sought the welfare of the people as a whole before their own individual advancement thoy have been actuated by the spirit of Socialism. Evorv groat reformer who has risked life and liberty for the. sake of some cause which he or she believed would regenerate humanity has been a Socialist. Socialism is essentially the religion of humanity. It places the collective welfare of the whole human race before the interests of any class, creed, or colour. It believes in securing tho greatest good for the greatest number, oven if in so doing some of those who now; enjoy more than their share of the good things of life have restrictions placed upon them that they as a class may consider unjust. Thus it is that land may have to bo nationalised, as under private 'enterprise tho land-owning class can live in luxurious idleness, while those actually cultivate the soil are taxed to sucli an extent in the form of rent that it is impossible for them to enjoy anything like a fair share of the wealth they produce, as tho rent is invariably raised when it is found that they are making a little more than is sufficient to pay their expenses. In like mannor wo may have to adopt State control of all the moans of production, distribution, and exchange, as it has been found that under private enterpriso the great mass of the people do not enjoy oither frocdom of speech or action, as tliey are always liable to lose their employment it thoy happen to oxpross opinions at variance with those of their employers. Of course, this state of affairs would not be improved upon by the substitution of State control for private enterprise if we continued to allow undemocratic politicians like Sir Joseph Ward and bis colleagues to rule over our destinies; but an enlightened democracy would consign them to political oblivion in a very short time. Another evil of private enterpriso is that, instead of distributing the wealth of the country equitably among all the peoplo, those who actually produce tho wealth get nothing beyond tho bare necessaries of existence, whilst those who are held by law to be the owners of tho means of production and distribution appropriate all the wealth, except that small portion which they have to part with in tho shapo of wages to keep their employees alive. As to what Mr. Willis - is pleased to term the third plank of Socialism, it is the individualistic state of society of which ho is so proud which . is responsible for tho degradation of womanhood, and which has reduced marriage from one of the divinest. things in nature to a mere matter of barter, in which the exigencies of existoncc compel women to lay the promptings of the heart oil ono side and knock themselves down to' tho highest bidder.—Yours, etc., NY'M. Shannon, Dccombor 17, 1907.