MR DUTHIE AND CHARTISM.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6491, 10 April 1908, Page 5

MR DUTHIE AND CHARTISM.

(To the Editor “N.Z, Times.*') Sir,—l was tackled very much at Mr Dufchie's speech at Taita lamenting the departure of present day Liberals from the old Chartist ideals. Tbo Chartists who came to this Dominion laid the foundations of Liberalism, and it is to their unflagging efforts—despite the determined and unceasing efforts of men like Mr Duthie—that we have, achieved the enviable position in which we find ourselves to-day. I know the freedom of action principle which Mr Duthie so extols. He has exercised it stringently in his own affairs, and is a rich man to-day, but even in the small matter of giving an annual holiday to his own employees he has been adamant in relusal. He has ever been the opponent of generous recognition being given to the men whose labour goes to create the wealth and prosperity of the community, and th© old ideals of the Chartists, the S 1?! 1 * h°urs day, and a good wage for faithful service, have little sympathy for the hard and canny Scotsman who even in the light of experience still regards labour legislation as “unjust and oirtrageous. I never could understand how Mr Duthie got the support of the. labouring classes in his elections. Perhaps the coming election will be an indication to him and his nominee of the manner in which his mananas waned—l am etc., * r ,,. . . CHARTIST. Kilbimie, April Bth.