Wellington Independent THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 1871.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3173, 14 April 1871, Page 2

Wellington Independent THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 1871.

A. valued correspondent signing himself a " working man" has written in our columns lately on (among things) " co-operation," In logic, sound sense and grammar, his letters contrast very favorably with the letters and addresses of some, who by professing, groat sympathy for " working men " try to leap up from their shoulders to places of honor and profit. The name, however, we are glad to say is no mere norn de plume. The writer is a honajlde working man making his living by manual labor. In common with other working men in Wellington who have favored us with letters under various sigaatures on different subjects, he utterly detests and repudiates the clap-trap used during both the recent and the present elections, by which the votes of " working men" as a distinct class of electors are attempted to be secured. There is only one thing more abhorrent, to their feelings, viz., the recent meetings on the Reclaimed Land of so-called working men, addressed by working men's candidates. Thatsuch men should rave and rant about being " unemployed," and ci'y out about •" bread to their children" they regard as the grossest of shams, and they conceive no greater affront could be passed upon " working men" as a class, than to identify them with such malcontents, who, had they husbanded the wages they have earned, might this day be in a different position. We need scarcely say that we entirely concur with them. When we note how heavily such men tax themselves by consuming luxuries, every shilling's worth of which yields nine-pence to the revenue, we cannot sympathise with the cry of their being ground down Vy taxation. "When we see them " put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains" all their drivel about enemies, tyrants, chains, and slavery, seems to us like " discoursing fustian with one's own shadow." " Self-government" they prate about, forsooth ! but no class in the community shows so little practical acquaintance with it. Reform is ever in their mouths, but never in their lives. Something is demanded to be done for them — nothing ly them. They pay more than their shure of the revenue, but they do not see in this a shameful confession, rather than a ground of discontentment. Against such " unreason" the letters of such correspondents as " A Working Ma)i" are a silent but emphatic protest. We intend to notice them in I future issues, pointing out how far we thiuk their opinions are sound on such great questions as land, education, and co operation. Meanwhile, we would make a few general introductory remarks We are glad to see the doctrine of self-help laid down so clearly by " A Working Man" on Tuesday last. He says "we have been so used to props and patronage, that the idea of helping ourselves seldom presents itself. A hand-to-mouth sort of existence is what we have for the most part been accustomed to, and what we are generally disposed to be contented with now. Never having been used to bettor conditions of life, generations which have gone before having been worse off, it is needful that we should be told, and the idea should be thrust upon us, that we may attain something better if we but help ourselves." This is the true spirit of manly independence ; and we believe there is not a country under heaven where it can have freer exercise than in New Zealand. The working men I know a freedom here from predominating classes to which they were utter strangers at home It is the glory of the colony that the highest places are open to working men. So far from sympathising with the remarks of Mr E. J. Wakcfiekl, the member for Christchurch who boasts of his " family," and thinks it a disgrace to Now Zealand to be represented in America by one who was " a homeless wanderer," we think he has deliberately insulted the working men of Christchurch who elected him, and has shown to the working men of Nesv Zealand generally, that he considers that between certain classes of colonists there is a gieut gulf fixed, so that ho who, by industry and talent, would seek to rise to the hearen of public office and honor cannot, because of his want of family, neither can any of the highly favored class, by descending to the lowest physical and moral degradation, forfeit his family mana, and the right to " patronise" long after he has ceased to " prop." Both in this insulting sneer, and his claim founded on being thirtyfive years connected with the colonisation of New Zealand, Mr Wakefield has shown the cloven foot. The colony, by

his assumption, is for those only who came out at an early period, and had a chance of buying the land, — the birthright of posterity — at prices fixed by men of " family" — the proper governing class ; and any who come out now (large tracts of the bast land beiug thus alienated) are not only to be denied equal chances of material advancement, but are not to attempt to rise to situations of honor or emolument reserved for men of family ! From such friends of the working man our correspondents pray to be delivered. If these men attain any position in which they can carry into effect such views, utterly discordant with the democratic institutions of this democratic colony, the working men will have themselves to blame, and, in the words of our correspondent of Tuesday, will one day acknowledge — " If they are thus powerful, it is by our own fault, and we are self-made slaves."