THE BEER TAX-MR WHITAKER VOTING FOR THE SIXPENNY TAX ON BEER INSTEAD OF THE THREEPENNY TAX.

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1286, 25 September 1880, Page 3

THE BEER TAX-MR WHITAKER VOTING FOR THE SIXPENNY TAX ON BEER INSTEAD OF THE THREEPENNY TAX.

TO THE EDITOB. Sir, — I bad a contract to finish, and had not time before this to answer " Anotlier Working Man's " letter of the 18th instant. His letter is so clever and abusive (like his first) that I suspect he is no working-man at all, at all. So do my mates. As to my attacking an absent man unheard, does my antagonist fancy that because " the member " (I won't call him "our member," for he does not represent, or at all events care for, my class) is enjoying his domestic happiness away from Cambridge, that therefore he is to be allowed to try and over-tax the working - man with impunity, and so spare the pockets of the land-sharking brotherhood? I will answer the two questions :— I do not pay more for my beer than I did. The quality is, however, plainly reduced. But, if Sir George Grey and his friends had not stuck out for the threepenny tax, Mr Whitaker and Company would have clapped on the sixpenny tax, and then my beer would have been twice as watery as now. In his zeal to defend his absent friend, Mr "Another Working Man" forgets his facts. Because he can stand a threepenny imposition, it does not follow that we will put up with, or, when election times come round, forget such an attempt to fleece us as this Government and Mr Whitaker have made. It has been their first defeat, but, thank God, not their last. Now, as to the second question :—: — I care not, nor do working-men generally care as to the name of the " party " who seeks to crush them. I admire Grey for his actions. But, if he was to act like Whitaker, he would not get the support of working-men as he does now, and will so long as he looks for it. — I am, &c, Wokkixg Max.