SOCIALISM AND INDIVIDUALISM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11541, 28 November 1900, Page 7

SOCIALISM AND INDIVIDUALISM.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—lt is comparatively quite an easy matter to talk glibly, or to write freely, upon socialism and its imagined blessings to mankind; but it is altogether a different practice to act it out individually. The usually much-applauded socialism, then, too often suddenly transposes itsalf into a rather pronounced individualism. A glaring as well as disreputable instance of this has lately been brought before at least the Australasian civilised world by the late outrageous action of the Seddon Government in the New Zealand Parliament of 1900, namely, thj sum total of £13,000 odd has been added to the personal incomes and the honorariums of members. Such, too, has been accomplished under a democratic or socialistic Government, which is supposed to act only for the bast weal of the mass of tho pooplo. Covetousness usually begets moral blindness, and this moral blindness has most evidently obtained a firm hold of apparently the majority of the so-called representatives of the people. It is quite manifest that the House of Representatives of this colony now urgently needs upon its floor a 1900 Cromwell. Where is he? May we hope that he will yet be found amongst the living, for, if so, a grand opportunity now presents itself. The vital want is a scourger to all scheming, bribery, and dishonesty, and the establishment of honesty, a wholesome economy, and righteousness and patriotism in its place.

The class of individual now needed is well described in the words found in the Book of Exodus, xviii. 21, namely, " Thou shalt provide out of all the- people able men, such as fear God; men of truth, hating covetousness." Doubtless there are some such men whc could at the present day be selected in this colony, and it surely ought not to be impossible to find a qualified captain or leader among such, and thus in course of time get the present system of corruption shamed out •of very existence.— am, etc., N.Z. i ! !