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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 81
Preface
Preface
In the Australasian colonies we live in a land of freedom. Our institutions are free, and no ruler tyrannises over us. We have done much for the civilisation and culture of our citizens. In our midst there is the free school, under the control of the citizens, and not dominated by any ecclesiastical body. We have free libraries, too, and in the larger cities there are art galleries, colleges, and universities. The health of the people is also a matter of public concern, and we have made provision for the recreation of our citizens. Gardens and parks open to the public are in all our towns. The political reforms for which the Chartists and reformers of England struggled sixty or seventy years ago are ours. And yet we have our social problems, and we seem to be no nearer a solution of many of them than our ancestors were in the early part of last century. We have often poverty amongst us, and the cry of the unemployed is not rarely heard in our land. What is to be done? We are bound to try to find a solution of the pressing social and economic problems that are with us. Mr. Ross, the writer of this booklet, thinks that in co-operation there is, if not a solution of our social and economic problems, at all events a mitigation of many of the evils under which we suffer. He may be too sanguine. This is ever the complaint we make when some new idea of social progress is launched. But if he be only partly right, if his remedy will palliate any of the evils from which we suffer,
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then surely it is the duty of all lovers of their kind to welcome his suggestion and to try his remedy. Co-operation in distribution has been a marked success in England, and there! is no reason why it should fail here. What is more urgently required is co-operation in production. That has not had an extensive trial, and it is only yet in the experimental stage. Why should we not try the experiment? Is a cooperative factory beyond the bounds of practical industry? I hope not. If it be, then the outlook for the future of this world is dark indeed. When the ties of brotherhood are stronger, co-operation in labour should be as easy as co-operation in ideas, in creeds, or in intellectual or social work. We need to realise that all men are not equal, and that the leaders of men in work and in ideas are as necessary as the men with strong muscles and with a strong moral sense.
Mr. Ross deals with political and quasi-political questions. There are obvious reasons why I should not trench on such subjects. The social questions dealt with by Mr. Ross are, however, above politics, and have an interest for every citizen of Australasia. I bespeak for this booklet the careful and thoughtful consideration of those who are looking to our new nations in the southern seas to become more and more the home of great and good citizens, and of those who realise that it is their duty to help to bring about these social re-forms that will make such an ideal possible.
Wellington, New Zealand.