Heard and Said

Maoriland Worker, Volume 9, Issue 349, 16 January 1918, Page 1

Heard and Said

That the tea tax of last session is estimated by our "Wizard of Finance" to produce .£99,000 per annunj. That the tax is at the rate of 3d. per lb., but the retailers have increased the price by fourpence. That it is thus clear that the tea tax, while bringing in per year to the Treasury, really takes £132,000 per annum from the earnings of the people. That if employers sought to reduce wages by that amount per annum, there would be a fierce outcry of protest, but the same thing is done by taxation arfd nothing i 3 said. That all Customs taxation is really a raid on wages. That it is time the workers realised that Customs taxation is but refined thieving—refined because perpetrated in the name of law. That the greatest and most truculent of tyrants is the Class State when it manifests its power in t£e enforcement of unjust laws. That there is terrible disappointment in political and military circles at the defeat of conscription in Australia. That the Rev. Howard Elliott and his friends see herein the cloven foot of Rome. That the news of the conscription poll has spoiled all the after-dinner speeches prepared by Tarn Mackenzie and George Reid for the coming year. That the newspaper bosses of Australia have got the shock of their lives. That if a poll on conscription were taken in New Zealand, the majority would follow Australia's lead. That our Northcliffe cable service has not sent us any of the comments of the London press on the result of the poll in Australia. That if the truth were know the vast majority of the workers of England are glad at the news. That the result of the poll clearly indicates the desire of the people of Australia that the war should be ended by negotiation. That every body laughs at the piffling war notes of the "New Zealand Times." That the "New Zealand Times" was once regarded by many people as a Liberal newspaper. That most people now realise that it is merely the daily edition of the "Free Lance." That the military Governor of Berlin has prohibited a Socialist meeting summoned "to consider internal and external political questions." That the Berlin Military Governor must surely be following in the footsteps of some of our Australasian Prussianists. That social evolution does not pause in its course out of iregaTd for the interests of a ruling class. That a Conservative thinks he is steady because he is motionless. That no one appears to perceive that intellectual cowardice is as disreputable as physical cowardice. That Socialism would abolish war. That's why Henry Dubb votes against it. That the man who hasn't studied Socialism is always cocksure it won't work. That the worker has been so used to the horrors of hell on earth that it will be hard for him to appreciate the beauties of heaven. That the Chinese revere the dead, while the British worship dead ideas. That the "N.Z. Times" hopes Lloyd George and Co. won't recognise the Bolshevik "usurpers." But already under threats from Trotsky they have released Petroff and Tchitcherin, whom they criminally jailed for being . Socialists and opponents of the Romanoff crowd. That our daylie press can't reconcile its repeated assertion that the Bolsheviks are "financed by German gold" with the fact that they broke off negotiations with Germany because Germany would not endorse principles which are included in the peace terms of every Labor and Socialist organisation in Europe—not excluding: Britain. That the "Liberal" "N.Z. Times" in ita "war notes" sneers at the word "Citizen." in its association with Litvinoff, the new Socialist Russian Ambassador. The "Times" would prefer "Sir," Baron, , ' "Lord," "Duke," in the matter of ambassadors. It was always democratic. That if the Dervish in charge of the "N.Z. Times" war notes bossed British policy from Downing Street, he would drive Karl Liebknecht into the arms of the Kaiser "in the interests of democracy " That the perpetrator of the War Notes in the "N.Z. Times" says joyfully that "the German sword is greater than the Russian pen." Down Trotsky! Let the war go onl That the cables cay that Britain will now "recognise" the Lenin Government because it broke off negotiations with Germany at Brest Litovsk. Lloyd George knows how to make a virtue of necessity.