SIR GEORGE GREY

Maoriland Worker, Volume 12, Issue 301, 6 December 1922, Page 4

SIR GEORGE GREY

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>: Sir George Grey, New Zealand's great Radical Statesman. spp&£s with Richard John £eddon in the House of Representatives on * tember 15, 1830, hi support of the workers during the -Maritime: His,words might have come from Labour-Candidates to-day. HIS PROPHETIC WORDS. "Some members«.have said that when once they are defeated-the Unions will instantly disappear; but I know perfectly well that will not be the case—that, in points of fact, a! new movement has -originated ; in society, and it will not stop'till it attains some definite end. It will go on,*it will .grow, and launch out perhaps in different directions.; ■ but I feel that no human effort can stop it from appearing- again.— Sir George Grey, Parliament, September 15,1590. A DEFENCE'iOF UNIONISM. "Some honourable .gentlemen have said—and apparently one oi, the Native members believe it—that the unionists are banded together■: against law and order. I positively deny that such is the ease. 1 believe that no men are more determined to -.support law and order. 1 ! believe that for more than a century—for nearly two centuries —the; condition of the working classes has been unhappy beyond human' conception. Their work,has been and their wages small. At times of depression the burden has fallen upon. them. Whenever competition became intense the only way in which victory was to be; obtained was by docking the working-men of their wages and in that way reducing the cost of production. UPON THEM THIS WH&&E' DIFFICULTY FELL. I maintain that they ought to have a career opened to them by which fair wages would be secured, and some hope would come to them of provision for the last years of their life.— Sir ©eorge Grey, September 15, 1880. • ' UNIONISTS" "HEROIC DESIGN." "In great nations antiquated customs.of this sort (the exploitation of politics by "the rich) have ended in rebellion. That here within a few years a few companies should grow up into such a mighty-power is something Ido not understand. I believe fully that such is the ease. I believe that many measures brought before us lately Have been in the INTERESTS OF MOOTYED COMPANIES "-AND AGAINST THE INTERESTS OF THE PUBLIC. How this has been brought about I cannot say, but I know it prevails. I firmly believe it to be the case. I deny that the Unions are "banded together .against law and order. What has arisen throughout the world as this: that because of their "wretched .-and unfortunate-condition the working-classes have banded themselves together by a common chain of sympathy which seems to extend throughout the world, and -toy have adopted what I believe to be a PERFECTLY HEROIC DESIGN—THAT OF ■STANDING -BY THEIR .FELLOW-MEN IN' WHOEVER COUNf-' TTRY THEY'MAY BE, ENGLAND, THE. UNITED 'STATES, OR, AUSTRALIA. They have resolved, relying on one common bond -of sympathy, to aid each other until some plan for the amelioration of •the misery that now exists has been fairly tried and carried out."-— Bir George Grey, Parliament,, September 15,1890. WISDOM ON WAGE CUTS. > . "He and his friends desired-to make-great- reductions In tire Administrative Departments of the Colony, but in this they were opposed by the mother side. The 'Ministry felt that such economy must begin at the heads of the State, and they proposed that REDUCTIONS SHOULD BE MADE 'FROM THE GOVERNOR DOWNWARDS, but in this movement they were beaten by .a big majority. It was only just if they were to have these reductions they .SHOUJuD BEGIN' AT THE TOP AND NOT AT THE BOTTOM."—Sir -George Grey, speaking in The Arcade, Wellington, August 16, 1879, THE LAND FOR TKE PEOPLE. . "What created Capital was the earth, the land and human-labour applied to it. The only source of Capital was the earth and the men Who made it productive. If they followed the whole question out, they would find this to be the case. ..... Judges and Legislatures had striven to keep it (the land) from the "many 'for the sake-.of "the few. Millions of human beings with passions and hopes, capable of, "feeling deep sorrows and "misery, who felt they could hardly obtain immortality 'hereafter—lor hundreds ;of years these millions of humanbeings with their sorrows and their.sufferings had been kept ...... .; in a -state of abject poverty. The thought for years past had been how to use the earth so that the few might be enriched by the-many. But what they had to solve now Was how to USE THE EARTH FOR THE •GOOD -OF MANKIND AT LARGE. He felt unless they .gamed liberal laws""which would enable them"to send the proper men "to ment THERE WOULD BE A GREATER. "DEGREE "OF 'OPPRESSION IN NEW -ZE-AIAND THAN WAS .E¥ER EXERCISED m GREAT BRITAIN."—Sir George Grey, speaking in Wellington, August 16,1879. , - : • ■ . -- ■