James Mackay Drummond

“ The Government struggled through three stormy years of existence, fighting its opponents with one hand and fending off the depression, the unemployed, and clamouring labour with the other. It was the Government’s policy not only to encourage the establishment of new industries, but also to assist old ones by a protective tariff. But people who are smarting under the lash of taxation are not likely to look favourably on fresh burdens. ”

“ Although he believed that Liberalism and Conservatism had no real meaning here, he felt that the colony was divided by a distinct line of demarcation. “It is the rich and the poor; it is the wealthy people and the landowners against the middle classes and the labouring classes. That is the real position in New Zealand. Wealth has power, and wealth asserts its sway, and I call upon every man on the Opposition side of the House, who desires to do his duty, to prevent the representation of wealth on the Government benches to the detriment of the people.” ”

“ It is about a quarter of a century since first I remember him sitting somewhere about the centre of the House of Representatives—aggressive, arrogant and resolute, caring little for the forms of the House, less for the opinions of those opposed to him—essentially a man, a man of the rough and ready type, a typical representative of a mining community, vigorous, alert, intelligent, but unrestrained, in marked contrast to his leader, Sir George Grey, calm, critical, controlled. And yet one reacted on the other. The old statesman acquired practical experience of the views of a new democracy ”

“ For years you have taken liberty from the people of New Zealand. You took from them their provincial institutions. You set up nothing of equal freedom in their place. You took from them their fair right of representation, so that in many places small numbers of electors, who are easily managed, could return members to Parliament. Under that system the Opposition and their friends acquired vast tracts of territory—tracts so large that if the whole of them was summed up together, honourable gentlemen would be astonished. ”

“ He was followed in the debate by Sir George Grey, whose only object was to see the people play with the new toy he had given them, the one-man-one-vote principle. The impatient old man testily told the House that the electors were waiting to take possession of the privilege. He was irritated at the delay, and every fresh speech made his irritation become more apparent. He was incensed at the spectacle of a dead Parliament governing a living nation. He could not imagine how the people with a great privilege in their grasp could brook the delay of a minute, much less of a whole session. ”

“ They were schools in which statesmen might be raised in all parts of the colony, and we might send our governors and legislators to all the distant islands of the Pacific, to unite them by our common system of education, by our common form of government, by one class of habits. We could found as great an Empire as the world has seen, giving employment to every class of our population, our seamen, our merchants, and our farmers. From among our young men we could send lawyers, legislators, physicians, and governors, under whatever name they might go, to these countries. ”

“ New Zealand might have the hollow honour of leading the English-speaking people in establishing Old Age Pensions, but it would be making itself a laughing-stock for the whole world; in any case, the scheme was only an extension of the charitable aid system, and there was nothing more demoralising than to encourage people to throw themselves on the State in their old age; they must be encouraged to practice thrift and self-reliance. The strongest attack against the scheme, however, was made on the ground that it did not provide for individual contributions, and did not apply to all aged people. ”

“ Down through New Zealand’s future, he sees what we may not see―
Sees the full-ripened fruit, the wise laws that assuage
Arrows and darts of misfortune, sorrow and sadness of age;
Sees strong Plutus degraded, grinding Monopoly prone;
Sees men reap where they sowed, each one holding his own;
Infancy nurtured, Maidenhood guarded, and Motherhood blest;
Labour ennobled and richly rewarded with guerdon of rest;
Homes made brighter and purer, hearts more glad and elate;
Woman, co-equal with Man, sharing the duties of State ”

“ With a total population of some 2,000 souls, the children seem to run into hundreds, and from the little red-vested rascal in his father’s old boots to the uniformed cadet, from the rosy-cheeked girlie who shook her curls over her face in a terror of joy at the Premier’s smile, to the lithe winsome maiden just budding into womanhood, all seemed the very best of their kind. ”

“ The fall of a large banking institution would have precipitated the colony into the depression again. The public revenue would have been seriously affected, the unemployed would have become clamorous, and the colonists, thoroughly disheartened by this fresh trouble, would have needed all their courage to meet the emergency.
There had been whispers among financiers that something might happen. Nothing had been said openly, but those who had opportunities for knowing, and who observed the signs, were alive to the fact that the bank was in an embarrassed position. ”

“ The strange old man who had led the Liberal Party first to a glorious victory and then to a disastrous defeat; who had come into politics amidst the plaudits of a young nation and surrounded by troops of enthusiastic supporters; who had stood on the floor of the House a few years later and described himself as a “lone and unfriended man”; and who had called Mr. Seddon into politics, now told him not to hesitate on the threshold of a new and a greater career. ”

“ The mass of the houses would seem to have been built in a hurry, as by men impatient over a labour that promised no golden return, and there is a general unpainted, rugged air that fits in well with the surrounding country. In common with other parts of the Coast, almost every house has the outside chimney, either of iron or of wood, lined with iron, telling of the wide open fireplace and of cheery log fires, and many have their scraps of garden, assisting materially to improve the general effect. Perhaps the most striking and pleasing thing about Kumara is its children. ”

“ We care nothing for the taunts hurled against us; nothing for the puny and contemptible accusations that are made. We know that we shall succeed in laying here the foundations of a race which shall be in every respect a monument to the efforts of those who have striven to build it, which shall be as a light here, at the utmost limits of the known world, lighting up the dark regions which surround New Zealand and securing to them civilization and Christianity. ”

“ The colony woke up one morning late in August, 1890, to find, to its astonishment, that it had been dragged into a maritime strike, which had been declared in Australia some weeks previously. Without its consent, and without even its knowledge, the colony was led into the bitterest industrial struggle the Australasian colonies have experienced. All the bad feeling between employers and workers in New Zealand, which had been accumulating for years, and had found only occasional means of escape, now came to the surface. It was an industrial war pure and simple. ”

“ Nobody claims that no labour legislation was passed in New Zealand before the Liberal Party came into power in 1891. From its earliest days the colony has been of an experimental turn of mind, and among its very early enactments there are measures dealing with the conditions under which daily work is carried on. Those who left the Old Country to build up a new nation in the furthermost ends of the earth brought with them new ideas and new conditions, and they frankly expressed a hope that the bad features of life in the country they were leaving would not be perpetuated. ”

“ On the eve of the completion of the sixtieth year of the happiest of reigns, we rejoice that, in honour of so auspicious an event, so many men of eminence have come from far across the seas in answer to our country’s call. We rejoice that all the Premiers of the eleven self-governing colonies have come as envoys of a ‘Greater Britain’ to the Motherland of so many distinguished daughters, the central hearth and home of so many flourishing colonies. ”

“ The cost of an accident is now borne by the business itself as one of the legitimate expenses of carrying it on. But it is recognised that too heavy an expense might fall suddenly on an employer owing to his having to pay a great deal of money in compensation for accidents, and provision has therefore been made by the Government Accident Insurance Act for insuring employers against the risk of paying compensation. ”

“ There is a warmth of feeling at Home towards the colonies, but when it comes to a small loaf without the corresponding advantages, as understood by the workers, the way the votes were cast does not in the slightest take me by surprise. It required, in my opinion, another three to five years before the people at Home could properly understand what closer union with the colonies really means, and what an important part trade and commerce play in maintaining the solidarity of the Empire, and in strengthening the unbreakable bond of union. ”

“ A nation is judged by its moral life. If the morality of the people is good, if the foundation of the country rests upon a basis of advanced humanity, then all is well. New Zealand to-day enjoys greater prosperity than she has ever enjoyed before. It is also lasting in character. There are no unemployed in New Zealand. Capital was never safer or bringing in better returns. I honestly believe that if the country continues on its present lines, vice, degradation and suffering will be kept from the land. I have been asked in Australia how New Zealand’s prosperity is accounted for. ”

“ They need nothing but the tie of kinship and of one crown, one country, one race; that is sufficient, and there will be no cry from the colonies if you will give them self-government and freedom. The more freedom they have, the greater will be their love for the Mother Country and the closer will be the connection.’ Amongst the men who stood boldly by that position was John Robert Godley, the founder of the province of Canterbury, in your colony. ”

“ To exalt labour and to improve the conditions of the workers is noble, but at the same time it is wise and just to give security to capital, to ensure its profitable employment, and the corollary of the development of the resources of the country. ”

“ The great Dock Strike in London had attracted attention in all parts of the world, and the emissary’s words were listened to by eager crowds of workers. The Order of the Knights of Labour had already been established in New Zealand, but in a rather half-hearted manner; and the parent branch sent its representative to induce New Zealand to help in the federation of the world’s labour. The idea was well received in many parts of the colony by men who were in no way connected with the working classes, but who believed that industrial warfare would wreck the colony’s future. ”