QUERIES AND REFLECTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11571, 8 February 1901, Page 7

QUERIES AND REFLECTIONS.

■ !'■ .- • TO" TTIE'TIBITOIi; ' ; V V " Sir,— would like to ask. yon whether the thousands of men who lost work on Saturday last -through', closing of mills, etc.. Jose thenpay?l If so. whether you thinl? it probable the Hon.- Mr. Ward (Acting-Premier) will issue instructions to have them paid, so as to bring- thorn on a par with Government railway Workmen, -whom, he has notified will bo. paid for the few hours the workshops were closed oil the occasion of the receipt of tho. news of • our late Queen's death. Also, what :form the testimonial is to take that the railway employees are: going to present the Hon. Ward with, for- raising their pay? _ I merely ask,' a-s: in India .this sort of thing would be called illegal gratification. - T. presume the testimonial will take some valuable form, and for receiving it the law prescribes punishment. Might I also ask how are you going to reconcile, the forthcoming reeoption of the Indian troops with that little paragraph you published last Tuesday, regarding four Indian eX-soldiers who. holding their certificates of discharge, were refused admittance into tho colony at Wellington because, poor fellows, they could not comply.with the immigration regulations? Whatever the reception may be, that paragraph goes to the officer commanding the contingent before he leaves the colony, and 110 doubt it will prove food for reflection on his way home as to how thinscs are done'in this im-to-date colony. —I am, etc., , .A xfiLO-INDTAK.