Our Wellington Letter.

Opunake Times, Volume VII, Issue 335, 23 November 1897, Page 3

Our Wellington Letter.

Wellington, November 15. ’J%K ESSENCE OF THE DEMOCRACY. If any intelligent man took 100 names at mn mm from any electoral roll in the emony ami seized up the capabilities of the elec-tors who owned those names, how many of them could he honestly say were capable of understanding the complex political questions of the day'. Say half of that 100 are women ; they may all be struck out at once, and of the other half perhaps half a dozen are aware of the fact that if the taxation expected from them indirectly were collected in hard cash and thus make clear the enormous sum the people are bled of to keep up a system of Government out of all proportion to the population ; the others representing an overwhelming majority are content to accept the assurances of political agitators that the Democracy has arrived, and that the People have a Government of their own. It is the fashion of these speech-makers to parade tha Democracy as the outcome of a general demand by the people for reform in some way, But if we examine the Democracy as we know it in New Zealand, it will be found that a very small minority are capable of understanding how any particular law will affect their welfare. The great body of the electors arc capable of understanding that when times are brisk and capital circulates freely that employment is plentiful and wages high, but when the prices of produce go down and there is less money to lay out in wages, they either lose sight of tbe fact that employers have less money to circulate, and that consequently the wage fund is reduced, and so either fewer men obtain employment or they have to accept a reduced wage all round. It is at such times they are ready to believe any fable that may be told them that the cure is labor legislation to enable tbe “ workers ” to share the profits of the employer. These socalled leaders omit to explain that the spending power of any nation is renewed every year. If butter and meat and tallow leave a surplus fund of two millions in one year and only one million in the next, it is clear that the wage fund can only provide half as much in the latter ns in the former. Of course foreign capital may seek investment and so tend to equalise matters. But that contingency cannot be considered here, for outside the capital invested in gold mining, investors have given this colony a wide berth. And no matter whether the sphere be politics, manufactures, commerce, mining, or any other, it will be found that the many average men are dependent on tbe few men of ability and capacity to organise those industries. The Democracy is a many-headed giant, capable of anything when bid either for good or evil, hut to say that the Democracy rules is contrary to the evidence of our senses. HOW IT WORKS. Would any community of its own will voluntarily increase the price of bread ? To this question the answer would bo an indignant “ No.” Yet that is exactly what the Democracy in the seat of Government of this liberally administered colony has just done. Not by a.direct vote, but by the operation of those very labor laws the people have been taught were to raise them to a higher level, to better their lot and to banish from our midst all the poverty and inequalities which were a blot on our social system. That ia how it was put a few years ago by Beeves, Seddon, and Co, who preached the crusade of the abolition of the capitalist, the middleman, and the tyrant generally. Their illgotten gains were to be shared under the glorious system of co-operation and State Socialism by the workers, who were to be guided on their road to the New Jerusalem by State Inspectors. We are now beginning to reap the harvest. That marvellous panacea for settling trade disputes, called the Conciliatiou Board, sat to adjudicate on a so-called dispute between the bakers and their men to-day. There was more of an unholy alliance than a dispute to make an award upon, for both parties were agreed except six or seven Philistines who preferred liberty to shackles. There are 62 working bakers in the Union and only half a dozen or so who are not bound by its rules, and there are 30 master bakers, who have only half a dozen outsiders who object to conciliation. They were contumacious and so the powers of the Board were invoked at the rate of 21s per member for one and a half hours consideration, to coerce malcontents into toeing the mark. The demands were of the usual sort.-No apprentices, shorter hours with full pay, and each mau to receive 13 loaves of bread per week in addition, whether married or single, nine holidays a year and strict prohibition against non-unionists obtaining employment The 30 master bakers who form the Association consented to the terms, ostensibly because they could not help themselves but as a cynical member of the Board observed, the agreement between the 92 masters and men appeared too amicable altogether for the welfare of the public, and so it proved, for a notification appeared in the papers forthwith that the 21b loaf had gone up from to 4d, The odd half-penny may not be much in itself, but when multiplied by the number of loaves eaten by the 45,000 people who are affected by it, the aggregate is a matter of moment, and although no reasonable householder would grudge the baker or butcher a living profit, it is a little bit steep when one finds that a ton of flour costing £l2 produces 1350 loaves, which at 4d each come to £22 10s if full weight and as many more as the bakers conscience and scales can stretch to. The black leg bakers will in all probability be called before Judge Williams to do penance for not obeying the behests of the Union. It is just possible, however, that they will not adhere to their old system and a 3d loaf and so upset the alliance. If so, they will have not only the sympathies, but the custom of the public with them. Now it is very clear that had there been no conciliation Board there would have been no compact ratified between masters and men, and as this Board has been paraded in Great Britain as a complete solution of labor disputes and a “ beacon to the world,” it is just as well that the operation of the Act has affected the staple food of the people. The extra cost will fall on all classes, but will be felt most by those who have upheld the promoters of Labor Legislative and returned to Parliament the Seddons and Wards, Grahams and Hoggs, and the rest of the Liberals who wero such devoted champions of the working man and who passed mischievous and restrictive legislation which proves how ignorant they are of what a democracy is, The truth is they are capable men in the sense that they have just enough ability to organise obstruction and restrain enterprise, but when it comes to offering facilities for the expansion of industries or if letting well alone they have proved the most pitiable failures in history—Let them pass. The bitter cry of a wronged and defrauded people is now heard throughout the land and those who gave them a loyal support cannot compound with their consceinces and longer, except in cases where the golden bonds overshadow whatever it ia that docs duty for conscience ; the day is past when in Parliament to hear was to obey, and the reign of fools is near its ignominious end, THE ESTIMATES. There are 23 classes in the Estimates and it has taken three sittings, occupying over 60 hours to get through 12 of them. Of those still to consider the Lands and Survey Department will provide ample scope for several hours questioning of the Minister of Lands, Whether he will take his physic with the same submissive weakness as his chief is doubtful. Dr Seddon has greater powers both for riding the high horse and for drinking of the cup of humiliation ns occasion offers than his colleague, and when administration comes under review there are sure to be scenes. The police will find some diversion for Tommy Taylor in baiting tho figurehead of that department and of the other departments the appointment of valuers, the advances to settlers and the lands for settleincut arc alt full of snags liable to wreck tho frail Ministerial structure, Eive hitherto faithful followers declared on Saturday morning that they would no longer be dragged at the Premier's heeds, and the countenance of the hero who, according to his own version, “ faced death in the Brunner mine,” and who

also more recently invited Mr Buchanan to “ come outside,” his once commanding attitude has changed to one of dejection. Truth to toll it is difficult to say whether the Opposition, powerful as it now is, will lie able to keep the Ministry in office through the session. But to oust them now would deprive tho country of that full knowledge of their unfitness for Government which is necessary to convince the people that a Liberal Government trading on deceit and corruption, is the wor-d kind of despotism. When the electors realise that the men who gained power seven years ago chiefly through the soreness of the workers at their defeat in the great strike have all become wealthy as Minters, and that no one in the previous history of the colony was better off in pocket through holding office, they will also realise that other men whether called Tories or Conservatives, but whose careers in the colony and personal characters are above reproach, and to whom the advancement of the colony moans a brighter future for all, then will New Zealand rise as one man and erase the besmirched name of “ Liberal ” from every ballot paper, as a conclusion that after all honesty is the best policy.