LETTER FOR HOME,

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 944, 7 November 1879, Page 2

LETTER FOR HOME,

By Snydbr.

My Dear Bob, — Since my last one to you, we have been going it faster than ever. We are socially, morally, commercially, and politically unique m our ways. There's no country just now that can be said to be a patch on us. While you, m the old world, are trammelled and bothered with a code of morals which is a stopper on all progress, we have no such miserable scruples here. We'll say, my Bob, that your old dad m Bloomsbury-street, was to burst up — that is, he could'nt meet his bills when they became due, could'nt pay his tradespeople ; could'nt pay anybody, and was gone clean stumped. Why, your dear old papa would cave m, and give things best. If he had to get whitewashed it would go a long way to breaking his old heart, and bringing his grey hairs with sorrow to the grave. He would be humiliated m a hundred ways. His friends would fall away from him, and when he was met m the street by any two men that had known him m his palmy days, one of them would say to the other, " there's Bob's father coming along on the other side of the street. Don't notice him. He's a very decent fellow, you know, but he's gone stone broke." Arfd your dad, my dear Bob, with thread -bare clothes and broken hopes, would linger out a few years m misery ; would die ; would have a cheap funeral, and people would say, •' Bob's father has gone, and its a great blessing that he's out of his troubles. He's done many a good turn, me included. Ah, poor old buffer — let's h;ive a drink." Now, Robert, if the old man had been out here, an insolvency would have made no manner of difference to him whatever, excepting to improve his circumstances. It would have freshened him up and made him feel ten years younger. Why, a man came into my office a few days ago, and when I asked him — it's a way I have upon seeing most people — when I asked how he was getting on, he said he was'nt quite certain how he was getting on. He had come to ask my advice. Well, I said, you shall have it, old fellow, if it will be any good to you. He thanked me, and then said he owed ever so much money to a lot of people, and asked me what I would recommend him to do. I said, perhaps upon the whole, he had better pay them. Well, he said, that's what I wanted to do, but they would'nt let me. I offered to give my creditors promissory notes at three, six, and nine months, but one and all Baid they could'nt see it. They did'nt think the Banks would look at my paper. And when, Snyder, I came to reflect on the m-itter, I was not quite sure but what the bank would be right m not looking at my paper. So then, as my creditors will not take my promissory notes, I throw the whole responsibility of my affairs upon them. I made the offer fair enoujjh without pressure being brought to bear upon me and they refused. Now, what I waijt your advice is, whether I should go to the trouble of filing my schedule, or letting my creditors do it for me — that is, make me a compulsory bankrupt. You see, if I file, I'll have to rake up something for the lawyer, and if tny creditors tile for me, they'll have to find the money, which m every way would be more convenient for me. Yon see, next week the races are on, and the Christmas and New Year's sprees are right before us, and I shall want all the spare cash to oarry me along. Now, Bob, my boy, if you think I'm exaggerating, you are mistakbn. Bank* ruptcy, where you live, means ruin and disgrace to the bankrupt ; but here it is nothing of the kind. I f s merely a renewal of the lease of one's commercial life. A man comes to me, and he says, Snyder, do you think Bill Davia ia good for five pounds of goods ? And I say, bless yon, my boy — he's quite good for that. Why, he's only just gone through the Court, and has wiped off every shilling he " owes m this world. Davis good for five pounds, do you ask ? Why, he's good for four times that amount far the next three months. Now, Bob, this is the country for you. See how you would get along with your insinuating ways and your . experience m moving ahead m life at the expense of other people. Well, Bob, as it is m trade and commerce, so it is m politics. You see a candidate comes forward for Parliament and he says, I go m for the Grey party. The Grey party is the one for me ; the one I stand by, and swear by, and no other party will I serve. And upon the strength of those words a candidate is returned. Well, when he gets down to Wellington, the opposite party comes to him and says the Grey party are sure to be licked, and will have to leave office, and if he will vote for their party they will make him a Minister — say a Minister of Mines. So he says, are you sure the Grey party will be licked ? and when they tell him it's a dead certainty, he says yo.tr party shall be my party — but mind, let there be no mistake about it — I'm to be Minister of Mines. Well, that's no sooner settled, when the member suddenly comes to hear that the Grey party are likely to stick m office. So, without another word, he goes clean over to them at once, and says, I'm for your side — but mind, do you see I'm to be what I was to be with the other side. That is, you know, Minister of Mines. And Bob, my boy, the constituents are quite as politically dishonest and consumed by rascality as the members they send to Parliament. You see, only a little while ago, Auckland sent up four representatives to Wellington who were to vote straight for Sir George Grey and his party. Well, when the Auckland people came to Bee that the Grey party were likely to get beaten, did the Auckland people send to their four members and say stick to the Grey colors through thick and thin ; we sent you to back them up, and don't go go from your word. Be staunch and true, whatever may happen. Did the Auckland people say this ? Not a bit of it, Bob. They sent word to the four members, and told them to get a promise from the Hall party that a large lump of the five million loan to be raised m London shall be spent m Auckland. If the Hall party promise this, then leave the Grey party and go over at once. We are a nice lot, are we not, Bob, down this way, to be sure 1 Why, a member of Parliament thinks as little of being recreant to his vows as men think little of di«honormer<their bills or their

What can the people expect but to be cheated of their political rights, when they ask their representatives to be dishonest. I say, my Robert, that no people that I know of are so politically and commercially corrupt as are the people of New Zealand. Our words are, as the breath that produces them — gone as soon as uttered — not the value of a pin's point. A false and corrupt Parliament ; a false morality m our dealings ; and what of good can possibly come out of them 1 We have no National feeling here ; no united action ; no sympathy, nor kindliness of feeling, one towards another. The politicians of Canterbury would rob and cheat and outwit the people of Auckland ; the people of Auckandland would cheat the people of Otago, so on, every one would cheat every one 6lse. We never think of legislating for the good of the country as a whole ; but each for the dirty paltry district, or borough we live m. We are always wishing evil to fall upon the parts we do not live m if by evil good shall come to ourselves. Why, the lies that Ministers tell, and the lies that representatives tell, and the lies with which the newspapers back them up, if we had no other wickedness to answer for, should make us contemptible m the eyes of the world. But still, I say, Bob, New Zealand is the place for you. With your loose principles, and your stick-at-nothing ways, you would not be long m making a pile either as a politician or a successful bankrupt. I will not say this sort of thing is going to last. Ido not think it will last. The time must come when life m New Zealand will not be all beer and skittles, land gambling, and the raising of large sums of money to be lavished and wasted without a return something approaching to an equivalent of expenditure. The waste of public moneys raised from loans has completely demoralised the people, and they have carried public extravagance into their private modes of living. We have a rich estate, but we have hypothecated it till financial ruin stares us m the face, and it will take years of the most economical legislation before we can hope to recover our lost position. We have to reform m public expenditure, and m our private outgoings, and I do think that it will be as well if we begin at once. Them's my sentiments, my Robert, and I think its the sentiments of those who having something yet to lose have cast their lot m this beautiful land of such great promise. SNYDER.