News and Views

Maoriland Worker, Volume 5, Issue 180, 15 July 1914, Page 1

News and Views

' Fighting Conservatism. All reform measures that had ever parsed into history had been aotively Opposed by the great unthinking conservative majority, who were too pigheaded to understand or put them to the test. When railways were first proposed, the farmers rose up in thousands to declare that the smoke from the engines would ruin their crops and rot the wool on the sheeps backs. He remembered when the first pneumatic tyres were introduced, the people standing by and jeering on the footpaths, and the first persons to carry umbrellas had their ginghams fired at with rocks. It was said that the Lord liked a joke, and therefore tad made monkeys, parrots, and all sorts of peculiar 0. H. Poole. * # * Mother Jones. If this woman, eighty-two years of age, can stand being imprisoned for months and deported from one place to another without having her spirit b'ro- ' -ken, what ought the younger persons In the movement be able to stand? • What we need is more of the spirit of "Mother" Jones in the hearty of every person who labours for a living, nnd every person who depends upon his , labour for a living should read more about her and profit by her experience. —Exchange. ' *' . * * * The passive Resistor. One day Tommy came home with a black eye and badly bespattered with mud. "Why, Tommy," said his mother, "Didn't T tell you not to fight unwi you had counted 100?" "i'os'm," sniffed Tommy, "and look what Bill Massey did while I was counting." / . "-. * * * Bob Semple was drawing a harrowing picture of the greedy capitalist to a backblocks audience. "Now who," he asked dramatically, "is tho miserable, worthless, wretched individual who gets food, clothing and shelter from his fellows and gives nothing whatever in return?" There was an instant's breathless silenco, and then a small voice chirped: "Please, sir, the baby I" * * ■* The Exploiters' Rookery. £60,000 more lmd been paid in interest by the settlers under Massey than under Ward. The Massey Party are hand-in-glove with the big landowners, brewers, and Press Associa-

tion. Out of 68 brewery shareholders in Christchuroh, only six supported the Liberal Party. The rest were Masseyites.—G. Witty, M.P.^ * * ,* The Old Jibe. Lib.-Lab.: You Socialists want to "divide up" at the end of each weekl Social Democrat: Even if we did, it would pan out much better than the present system, uiJer which 99 are starved to enrich one. For instance, the annual production of Great Britains. i 3 about £45 per head, which would mean to every man with a wife and three children, an income of over £4 per week. * # * "I am willing," said the S.D.P candidate, hitting the table a terrible blow with his fist, "to trust the people." "Great Scott!" yelled the Lib.-Labs. in the audience, "We wish you'd open a grocer's shop I" * * * Mr. C. H. Poole* asked for the Bame consideration for the emancipation of men and women as the Government showed towards the domestic animals. If half the care and money that had been bestowed on tbe raising of prize stock had been, devoted to the children, we should have had something better to show for it: * * * General lan Hahiilton relating stories of the war, after dinner was over mentioned having been in live engagements. "That's not so much," said little Edgar suddenly, "sister Edna ha 9 been engaged nine times." * * * A Square Deal. The Prime Minister had increased the Savings Bank deposits by one-quarter per cent. At the same time he had advanced the rate of* interest earned by his own class, the moneylenders, by 1 to 3 per cent. He had done it by not doing his duty under the Advances to Settlers Act. —G. Witty, M.P. * # * Women and Temperance. The first time the women, of Illinois went to the polls, they voted out 1400 saloona.—Mr. C. H. Poole. * * * Lib.-Lab. Creed. Parry. Do you know what a Socialist is? , Paul: No, I don't. Parry: A Socialist is a man' that can turn the worid right round. Paul: Well, it's my belief that he'd better leave it where it is!' * * * The Last to Talk. For the Government to prate about "law and order" is political hypocrisy of the worst type. They have been setting the law at variance all along, and everybody knows it.—J. Robertson, M.-P. * * * To Keep the Sun out. Tommy was playing in the garden, when he happened to notice that next door's blinds were drawn down. 'Mother,'" he asked, "why are those blinds drawn down?" "To keep the sun out," said she. Two days he was told that Mrs. Neighbour bad a uttlo son After thinking deeply for a few minutes, Tommy said: — "It wasn't much good keeping the blinds down, was it, mother?" * * * Who will It Settle? Dealing with tho strike in the nointerjected, triumphantly: "I settled it —and I'll settle it again when it comes along I"' Payne: "It'll Bettle you at the next election!" * * * Had a High Opinion. "I had a high opinion of the Rt. Hon. the Prime Minister; I believed him to be a man of principle andl integrity"—(gratified and gracious bows from Massey)—"when he was in the Opposition!"—G. Witty, M.P., in the no-confidence debate. What is the Verdict? Public: Are you a just and upright judge ? ■ Edwards: Of bourse; I've been charged! several times, but always let off! * * * First to Break the Law. The Government has made a great song about tho strikers being lawbreakers. It was the first to break the law itself. The Union Company broke their agreement with the shipwrights, and the Government deliberately upheld them in so doing.—J. Robertson, M.P.