A CRITIC CRITICISED.

Gisborne Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1412, 24 March 1905, Page 3

A CRITIC CRITICISED.

[(To the Editoii Hisborne Times.) Sir, —A friend haa forwarded me an 'Auckland paper containing the followReferring to the character of the Bri;siah workman, the Rev. Mr Chstterton, of i&iaborne, who has just returned from England, has stated that there was growing a great lack of taste for work, which vas scrambled througn somehow and have ilone with it. Since he was last Home he noted an increase in holiday-making and pleasure-seeking, mainly through the institution of the “ week end.” Thousands flfook advantage of the facilities offered by ' week-end tickets to travel on the railway holiday-making, acid this had a very considerable bearing on the economic conditions. What hindered the progress of the Old Country was the fact that the private railway companies have done nothing to teWer freight charges and passenger faces for years, and thfy were now only encouraging people by means of “ week-end tickets, to increa/e their unproductive expenditure. People spent their money in ijhis way withdut benefiting the country, B Dd tradesman found it increasingly difficult to go/ thair accounts paid. Their onstomers/did not hesitate to spend their earnings <on weekly trips, but did not settle, %rith their creditors, who had a hard etruggj6 to make ends meet. Football and other pastimes were degenerating into professionalism, and on one occasion two clubs woro fined £SOO and dG3OO each -got: transferring-men from one to another contrary to tbo rules.” As one who' has earned his bread by the “ sweat of his' brow ” both in the old country and the coloDy, I should like r»to protest against tbia class of critic. A rev. gentleman is able to go off on a six months’ jaunt after his “ hard labors” and then comes back and complains that workmen at Homo are showing a distaste ifpr 'work —I am pleased to learn that the * workers are having a bettor time than the way they were ground down in my day It is a calamity to think that workers are getting cheap weekly tickets 1 As ior the statement that men are spending money ■ tibn health trips—“ pleasure-seeking ” our rev. friend calls it—l will undertake if he will supply me with any names of those who are defrauding tradesmen so that they (the creditors) may have woek-ena £,-holidays, to have them submitted to «£fche Home Union authorities for something more than vague charges. Ido not lenow much about football professionalism, but should say that the imposing of heavy (“ftfiues ia proof of reasonable attempts to j cheek abuses. Certainly it does not seem to me good taste for a clergyman—say bard-worked if you like —to take a six months’ holiday jaunt from sunshiny Now from a well-ventilated residence f in the clear atmosphere of Gisborne to make remarks disparaging the poor toiler in grimy, soot-laden towns and unhealthy living conditions -.who has an occasional /I cheap railway run into the pure air of the : V s a a sido 1 Anyono in Gisborne can got sea air for the walk—yet some people go thousands of miles for “ pleasure-seeking. —I am, etc., . One Who Toils. v-y ■ -