ST. KILDA FIRE BRIGADE.

Evening Star, Issue 14626, 24 July 1911, Page 2

ST. KILDA FIRE BRIGADE.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —We, the undersigned members of. tho St. Kilda Fire Brigade, desire to give an unqualified denial to the last sentence in your local of Saturday evening's issue re the St. KUda Fire Brigade. The sentence read : "We axe informed the brigade intend to wait upon the council to ask if thj» false alarm were justified, and to announce that if it bo thought they are too slow the council had better- get others to do trie work."

The brigade have no intention of waiting on the council in connection with the false alarm which we received on Tuesday evening, as the members are only too anxious to turn out at any time and give their assistance. The very fact of the brigade instituting a system of false alarms on their own account should prove to anyone that they axe not averse to being called out at any time. In conciusion, we wish to say that we were pleased to 'be able to respond so readily to the call given by the Fire Brigado Committee. —We are, etc., John M'Konzio (captain), J. 0. Burk (lieutenant), J no. Broad foot (foreman), J. Robt. Moore (secretary), T. Toner, J. C. Sharp, A. J. Foord, D. A. Telfer, A. George, H. Morris, R. Percy, J. Algie, W. Miller, and A. E. Wyatt (firemen). July 24. [We published this local in good faith, believing our authority to be unimpeachaole.—Ed. E.S.] .- BAD LIQUOR. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Is there in this Dominion &nch an officer as an inspector under the Licensing Act? I feel sure an analysis of some of the liquors purveyed in this City would prove instructive,—l am, etc., Waterproof. July 24. MR GLADSTONE AND NO-LICENSE. TO THE EDITOR Sir, Your correspondent "Anti-No-lieense" again drags up the name of the Right Hon. \V. K. Gladstone to support continuance of licenses. Though Mr Gladstone was not an abstainer, he was, for his day, a very moderate drinker indeed. There can be little doubt that had he lived to-day, with all the knowledge we have of the injury caused by small doses of alcohol, he would have said, with Edi6on : "I have a better use for my brains" than to narcotise them with drink. Nearly all those detailed and convincing researches, experiments, and total abstinence life insurance figures which now place the policy of total abstinence in an unassailable position have como to pass during the last 30 years. However, though he was of the last generation as regards the habit of drinking, Mr Gladstone was absolutely with us in regard to Local Option. I have several utterances of his showing that he held it to be unanswerable that in' any community the people themselves had a right to decide as to whether they would have the liquor traffic or not. He said, in effect: the people who suffer must decide. It is impossible to believe, in the face of his words, that he would not gladly have voted away his own right to buy drink in order that the common good might be achieved, just as President Eliot, of Harvard College, does now, and thousands more of moderate drinkers in New Zealand intend to do Ln November next.—l am, etc., Secbetary No-license Paety. July 24. LABORITE OK SOCIALIST? TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—What is the matter with some of our leaders of Labor? The way in which they change their views is most bewildering to the average worker. Every man agrees in the right to change opinions, as this tends to the advancement of humanity, when the. opinions adopted are consistent with the attitude of its advocate.' But when we find members of one party who advocate one set of principles, at the same time preaching and supporting the principles of another organisation, it is not surprising that we get befogged. Mr MacMamis since his arrival in this Dominion has been advocating the Socialist objective and industrial unionism, and on his own admission is still a member of the Socialist party. Speaking at the Labor party's meeting in South Dunedin on the 20th inst., ho said: " He advocated the Labor party's policy, as under the present system workers v«se almost comneUed to

beg on their knees for employment." Mr MacManus has sprung, a political surprise on the workers of this Dominion. Being a member of the Socialist party, how can he at the same time advocate the policy of the Labor party? Where is the consistency? Will Mr MacManus tell us? In March, ISQB,.Mr MacManus advocated the Socialist objective. He tried his best to "get the Labor party in Dunedin to adopt the following:—" The socialisation of the means of production, distribution, and exchange, to be controlled by a democratic community on a production-for-use basis." In January, 1910, Sir MacManus, in a controversy with a prominent member of the Upper House, advocated the principles of industrial unionism, and he has done so ever since until the 20th inst., when, as I said before, ho sprang a political surprise on the workers. I have no desire to discredit Mr MacManus in the eyes of the workers. The views I hold are not the same as those held by the average Labor advocate, but one thing my fellow-workers and I have a right to expect, and that is: consistency on the part of those who speak in our name—that is, in the name of tho workers.—l am, etc., Interested. July 24.