MR. MOSS AT NEWMARKET.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8288, 21 June 1890, Page 3

MR. MOSS AT NEWMARKET.

TO TIIE EDITOR. Sir, —On reading your report of the above in your issue of June I*l, I could not but regret finding a public man like Mr. Moss sotting labour against capital, as he clearly doe." in that portion of his address, "Interest of Labour." For Mr. Moss asserted, " There has been growing up inNew Zealand a powerful party with wealth, intelligence, and power at its back ; and the secret creed of that party was reduce wages, lengthen the hours of labour, and cut down the education which gives intelligence to the poor ; this has been the tendency of the politics of a very powerful party." Now it may be very well for Mr. Moss to tickle the ears of his listeners with such bunkum and claptrap when he knows he is addressing a large number of working men, but he must be well aware that the advantage is all on the side of the labourer- and against the capitalist, as the popular cry has been carried, triennial parliaments, manhood suffrage, and one-man vote. And what is the House of Representatives composed of? Certainly not of capitalists, for how many of them pay property tax ? Few indeed. As for the reduction of wages Mr. M. talks about, no such thing has taken place, bub quite the contrary, particularly if you take into consideration the price of all produce. I remember when a good day's work could be got for 4s, but it can't now, and look at the difference in the price of all farm produce, then and now. There was no butter to be had at Cd per lb. in those days at midwinter, nor wheat at 3s per bushel. I say a labouring man can get his daily wants supplied far cheaper now than he used to do, and yet we now hear so much of organisations for higher wages and shorter hours of labour. Of course, Mr. Moss sees a general election looming ahead, so trims his sails to suit the occasion. Mr. Moss in his address goes on to make most serious charges against the Government ro Newmarket workshops and the last elections, and I do hope he will be made to prove his rash assertions, for it will be a disgrace if such remarks are allowed to go unchallenged. But, of course, with Mr. Moss the words meant votes, as I have no doubt there were plenty of railway workmen present. If Mr. Moss considered those men had been wronged, why did he not go in for an investigation from his place in the House ? That would have been a manly course, instead of raising at his meeting the cry of capital against labour. What is the one without the other, and to make any country in the world prosper, they shouid go hand in hand. I fail to see where the labourer in this country has been, or is likely to be. oppressed by the capitalist. Numbers oi the latter have invested thousands ol pounds, and have got nothing in return. Who has reaped the advantage from the loans we have been expending for so many years ' Why, I say the labouring man chiefly ; for they have had their daily pay while the money lasted, and the property of the capitalist has not increased in value to any extent, and still he is taxed double, through property tax, and also through Customs' duties. Mr. Moss concludes by having a dig at the expiring Parliament, by saying " they [the working men, I presume, as he is alluding to labour Unionshad the most unsympathetic Parliament they ever had," and yet it was elected by the working man and not by the capitalist, iam sure, under manhood suffrage. lam &c "' . T H. Crisfe. Mauku, June 14, IS9O.