Jam and Vinegar.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 239, 25 December 1888, Page 2

Jam and Vinegar.

[Wellington Press] The Minister of Education has treated tho unemployed at Christchurch to a tremendous jobation, and those who have no sympathy with the unemployed agitation, will probably think he has overdone it. Such a f anfaronade, addressed to a lot of poor fellows down on their luck, doos not come with the best grace from a Minister who has just been to the Melbourne Cup at the public expense—at the expense, that is to say, of these very men whom he so severely lectures, amongst others. If there had been a man of ready speech among them, posted up in facts, he might have made Mr Fisher loojfe rather foolish if he had turned upon said, “ It’s all very well for you to talk to us about the necessity for working men being true to themselves, and maintaining their independence, and all the rest of it ; but your grand words would have more weight if you practised what you preach. Fine feathers mike fine birds, and no doubt you fancy yourself a very fine man indeed, —something quite superior to the working man. But who pays your salary of £BOO a year, your allowance of £2OO a year for living in your own house, your travelling expenses, and your travelling allowance for travelling “on the public service,” when in reality you are havl ing a good loaf, going to the races and showing off in Melbourne ? ... We may be a bad lot, but any way you take it, we’re no worse than you, and not a tenth part as expensive. Yet you jaw as if we had tried to pick your pocket ” Another member of the deputation emboldened by the first speaker’s . success, might then have steiptl forward, and said, “ You say you will no longer lend your countenance to meetings of the unemployed, but don’t you thiuk it more honest for men who are out of a barth to meet openly and say what they want, than to crawl up the back stairs and make things sweet for themselves through friends at Court ? Who’s this mate of your’s you’ve just shoved in at £BOO a year ’ That was a pretty soft thing, wasn’t it? He wasn’t one of the unemployed, was he ? On no, he’d only retired from business. £BOO a year I How many families of the likes of us could live in comfort on the screw you’ve given to this one man, because he happened to be good at the electioneering ? . . . You say the New Zealand working men may think themselves lucky they’re not in Victoria, where 5000 men applied for 623 billets, and where 1900 were selected to undergo a literary and medical examination before the final selection was m ide. But don’t you think you're rather luoky to be here too ? Did you happen to hear when you were over there whether they make men pass an examination for Minister of Education, for instance? It seems to me a working man can make shift to do his work well enough, though he can’t pass a literary examination. But a Minister of Education ought to be able to pass any examination that the school teachers can pass, any way. You talk very high and mighty to us about working men passing an examination, but how would you like to stand the racket yourself? If you don’t mean to help us, you needn’t. If the worst comes to the worst, I dare say we shall manage to rub along somehow without your help. But don’t give us so much of your lip, unless we are allowed to wag our tongue a bit too. No offence, mister, but I am a plain man and what I say is straight.”