No. I.

Friends—

For nearly half a century, with hut one short interval, New Zealand has been governed by an oligarchy composed mainly of English capitalists or their nominees, land monopolists, and colonial plutocrats. The laws which have been enacted have, in consequence, conserved and promoted the interests of wealth, without simultaneously safeguarding the interests of the poor. A system of taxation has been devised by which the weight of the burdens of government has fallen upon the working classes, while the possessors of princely incomes have almost wholly escaped the payment of taxes. By this system of indirect taxation, the toilers have had to pay heavy duties upon almost every article of food they consumed, and every garment they wore. The effect has been that the great mass of the people have, through the unequal pressure of taxation, been kept in a state of poverty, and have been unable to avail themselves of the great opportunities of bettering their condition which a new country fairly governed would necessarily afford.

For many years a great and large-hearted statesman—Sir George Grey—has endeavoured, by the instrumentality of his matchless oratory, to awaken the people to a sense of their power, and to their duty in the interests of; themselves and their posterity to rightly exorcise it, but the unsparing and unscrupulous use of money, artifice, intrigue, calumny, and other weapons of the plutocrat party thwarted him at every step, and delayed the fruition of the hopes with which he began his career as the tribune of the people. His teaching, however, was not without result, and, at length, at the General Election, held in December last, the Democracy of New Zealand vigorously asserted itself, and returned to the House of Representatives a large majority pledged to overthrow the old monopolist regime, and to place in power a Ministry of the people. The Parliament met the continuous Ministry was ejected from office, and the present administration of Mr. John Ballance entrusted with the reins of Government. When it was seen by the Plutocrats and their entourage of hirelings and hangers-on that the defeat of that hybrid thing, Colonial Toryism, was real and smashing, their first feelings were those of consternation. They stood aghast. They believed that their day for plundering the masses was over, and that henceforward the colony was to be governed for the people, and by the people. But, from the effects of the blow received by the Liberal victory, those, whom I shall, for the future in these Letters, call the Tory party, are beginning to rally. They are not ready to admit the permanency of a popular triumph. They think they can re-organise and consolidate their shattered forces and make a determined effort to recover their lost position, and to restore the reign of a privileged and pampered Plutocracy, and a minority composed of the slaves of financial corporations. Hence we see throughout the colony that coteries of Tories have formed themselves into associations and societies, with vague and colourless programmes, which do not avow the real object or purpose which their originators, have in view, but are designed to hoodwink and entrap the unthinking and unwary. Here, in Auckland, the Tories have established what they call the "National Association." To the published programme of this Association every Liberal could subscribe, as it deals in vague generalities with regard to the principles of Legislation. But no Liberal is, or can be deceived as to page 3 the real character and objects of the organisation, which has been the outcome of so many secret meetings of timid little citizens, and the puppets and the deluded victims of the plutocracy. The National Association is the body by means of which it is sought to create a Tory re-action, to turn back the tide of political progress, and to re-establish the ascendancy of the plutocracy and their dependents. In order, therefore, that the Liberal victory at the last elections may be preserved and extended at the next general election into a universal triumph throughout the constituencies of the colony, it is incumbent on the Liberal party not to rest too long on their oars and allow their opponents, by the various tricks in which they are adepts, to win over any unthinking electors. It is necessary to organise, as the Tories are doing. It is necessary to widely disseminate among the people the fullest political information, and to enable every Liberal elector, if necessary, when called upon, to be able "to give a reason for the faith that is in him." The Tories have wealth, a groat portion of it foreign wealth, the possessors of which are but little concerned with the happiness of the New Zealand people. The Tories, therefore, have, in fighting the coming political battle, the immense advantage which abundant sinews of war manifestly supply. It is all the more necessary, therefore, for every Democrat, having the welfare of his country at heart, to use all honourable means at his command to enlighten his fellow countrymen with regard to the tactics of the Tory reactionaries, and to prevent the great force of New Zealand Liberalism from being sapped and weakened by their insidious and strategical assaults. I propose, in these letters, to briefly point out the miseries which the long domination of the plutocracy has inflicted upon the people of Now Zealand, the inestimable advantage to the masses of the people of preserving in power a thoroughly capable Liberal Government, and the unwisdom and folly for Liberals to allow themselves to be led away from allegiance to their party by any side issues, or those which can be fitly described as sectional or subordinate. Before proceeding further, I must warn you to accept with caution the statements and comments on political questions of the majority of the newspapers. With but few exceptions the Press of the colony is intensely Tory, and hostile to reform, and its teaching therefore is necessarily, and even avowedly, designed to overthrow the present Liberal Government, and to destroy the Liberal majority in Parliament. You should, therefore, look rather to the speeches of your political leaders than to articles in newspapers for the true exposition of your political faith and information as to its various phases and development.

Now to my task. I start with the proposition which is now admitted even by the most pronounced Tories (see Mr. Balfour's speech at Plymouth, on August 10th last) that the true end and object of all human Government ought to be "the greatest happiness of the greatest number." That this has not been the object aimed at during the long domination of the Tory party in New Zealand is but too painfully evident by the political, social, and economic wreckage with which the country is everywhere bestrewn. This magnificent colony, the Pearl of Oceania, unrivalled in the possession of all the gifts with which bountiful nature can gladden the heart of man, has been blighted, and stricken well nigh unto death, by a misrule as grievous as that of the Negroes of Hayti, or the Turks in Europe, and if the "bag and baggage" policy which Mr. Gladstone would, if allowed, apply to the latter, were adopted with regard to our land sharks and their dependent political quacks, the relief to the country would be immediate and incalculable.