THE PENNILESS PUBLIC.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12533, 21 June 1901, Page 6

THE PENNILESS PUBLIC.

TO THE EDITOR. , Sir, —How could you write under such a heading as that 1 Have we not been told over and over again, that the country was never so prosperous? Fancy a prosperous country with a penniless public 1 No one out of work, said 1 the member for Kaiapoi; everybody doing well. Own up that you have made a mistake. If not, then, I hold that. a "penniless public" have no right whatever to gape with open mouth at such wealth and grandeur 'as are shortly to appear in Christchurch. Moreover, if this class of people have any esteem for themselves, they will refuse to attend as mere shoute'rs. It is a very unthankful office, and then time might be better spent in thinking over the question of distinction that is made between the useful and useless members of. society. Could) they realise that human flesh is of one quality, they would soon reach to a higher level. A high level means a truer equality, if not an equality minus a " penniless public." No shouting, then, except to men of great intelligence.—l am, etc., G. BARTY. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —As the stands appear, in the minds of many of your readers, to have been erected for two main purpos>es-r-that the rich can show themselves, and thatb the poor can be sihown—how would it do for all over fifty years of age, who axe not holders of stand tickets, to take a tramp down to Dunediia? ' Thsy might earn their " tucker " by singing loyal songs etn, route. However, it must be owned that their chance 'of free and unimpeded view in the Southern Edinburgh hardly wairamta the jaunt.—l am, etc., UNEMPLOYED SQUATTER. " Herrick's," Juno 20, 1901. '