DESTRUCTION OF NATIONAL INDUSTRY 31 



for years longer than it was necessary, proves how ready 

 he is to play his part as a loyal citizen and bear the heavy 

 burdens imposed upon him by those whom he elects and 

 sends to Westminster to legislate in the interests of the 

 Empire. 



He is, however, forced to realise at last that his 

 docility and patience have induced the building up of a 

 system of expenditure in respect to Poor Law adminis- 

 tration, and similar subjects, so lavish and wasteful, and 

 withal so useless and ineffectual, as to amount to a 

 public scandal and a positive injustice to every tax- 

 payer in the kingdom. 



He is also forced to recognise that his apathy in regard 

 to fiscal affairs has resulted in maladministration to such 

 an extent as to cause widespread loss to State land- 

 owners and farmers, as well as poverty and misery to the 

 working classes, and it has cast upon the tax-paying 

 community far heavier burdens than there is the least 

 necessity for, burdens of which they are heartily sick 

 and tired, because they know, from bitter everyday 

 experience, that all effort is futile, and that these bur- 

 dens are borne without affording the least real relief to 

 those for whose benefit they were imposed. 



He sees that the whole question is becoming more 

 difficult and menacing each year, that the poverty of 

 the people has become so prevalent as to demand more 

 and more attention and support from the State and the 

 charitable public, and that it has, in fact, become tlie 

 most important question of the day. It looms largely in 

 the Government programme of work in every ses- 

 sion; it forms the basis of all Socialist agitation and 



