THE GOVERNMENT AND THE WORKERS.

Evening Star, Issue 12866, 16 July 1906, Page 2

THE GOVERNMENT AND THE WORKERS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—ln 1889 Mr (now Sir J. G.) Ward asked by the Labor Day Association to refuse a permit to the Dunedin Jockey Club for the totalisator at their meeting in October of that year. He promised to Took into the matter and give it his favorable consideration. He did so, with the result that he found he could not grant the request, as it would establish a very bad precedent; and, sir, it is on such paltry issues as this that the. workers are asked to vote against t>ir J. G. Ward becoming lie leader of the Liberal party. Surely there must be some other reason', for it is impossible to conceive that one who poses as tie mouthpiece of the workers can expect sensible men to bo misled by such tommy rot as he gave vent to on Wednesday night last. To those of us who know the condition of things prior to the coming into power of the present party, it is a direct insult when he asks what have the Government done? Ye gods! what have they done! Fellow-workers, those of you who do not know what they have done, look up the Year Book for 1889. and compare it with the Year Book for 1905. That will give you a complete answer to the outpourings of- last Wednesday night. The whole civilised world stood aghast at the measures introduced in our House of Representatives and the same old world is now prepared to follow in our footsteps. What have they done? They have given tw the best Labor laws the world has ever seen. They gave us that God’s blessing the Advances to Settlers Act; they pealed that curse of advancement, the Property Tax ; they gave tu.the Workers’ Compensation Act, that has kept hundreds from starving; they have also given us the most liberal land laws in the world. Then they came to the rescue of the whole community during the gravest period of financial depression the colony has ever seen, and by the passing of legislation alone saved thousands from starvation, the malcontents of Wednesday night amongst the number, Watkeis, have gives joa tfas c»r,

operative system, and year leaders seem to have failed to yot grasp what that means to you. Surely there is yet amongst tho leaders some of the old army of Mullocky Gully workers, and, if so, how they must smile when they hear those two intelligent loaders of Wednesday’s meeting asking what have the present party done ; for us. Sir, tho motherhood of this colony can also reply, and say the Government have placed womanhood on a footing never attempted in any other part of the world. And in starting the maternity hospitals they have done a something that year by year will call forth a blpssing from every woman that bears a child- Why, one could write for hours on what they have done for every eection of the community, and still leave hours of work undone. But let me finish this part by mentioning ] one more work they have done—that is, the Old Age Pension Act. Has that done no good? Let would-be Labor leaders take the public platform fcid state that those Acts I have mentioned have not been for the welfare of the workers, and picture, my readers, tho reception that would n"->it. » them. It world, I feel assured, convince I them that the workers are not such “gulls” 1 as they evidently take them to be. I What have they done? What an insult to tho memory of him who has recently gone—he who lived his life for us, and whose one aim in life was to uplift the whole without injury to any. And then to .add insult to insult by casting suspicion on him who has been our late Premier’s coworkcr thmuabout his official life! Yes, and when Sir Joseph Ward’s life-story has to be told it will be found that be played no small part iu making New Zealand what she ie to-day. Fellow-workers, bo true to yourselves, and do not be led from the party that has done so much for you And remember your tnu friend is not he who would have you believe that every man is your enemy who wears a black coat and a tall hat. You have only to look at the hard work some of your would-be advisers are doing, and I think it will causa a smile.—l am, etc., A Wobkeb. July 15.