HIDING THE DIRT.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11508, 14 February 1903, Page 6

HIDING THE DIRT.

A short time ago a paragraph appeared in this journal, describing a sew issue of bank notes. The description suggested much highly decorative ait,'but sobered by a prevailing colour calculated to "hide the dirt." The paragraph in a few Insinuating words brought our'readers face to face with an unsavoury danger which ia not always realised. We have reason to know , that it startled eorae of' onr readers. Whether the writer intended to "make their flesh 'creep" we do not know, but the suggestive words were not wasted. Imagination raised bogies and.prompted enquiry; enquiry elicited facts more startling than bogies; and thereupon arose grim discussion on colour and dirt. Argument'wandfered, in a very human way, from the original theme to the relations between colour and dirt in all sorts of unexpected places—even to political dirt hiding tinder the shelter of political colour. Wβ had almost forgotten the prudently coloured bank notes, when the pungent odour from a particularly fragrant specimen diverted our attention from the large banking questions, which will coon absorb public interest, to a humbler theme—to the Blrirta and flounces of the subject, or rather to the dirt that hangs about those skirts. A wholesome crusade has been initiated against dirt in many quarters, towns ihave been drained, houses have been inspected and purified, destructors are.night and day at work upon all manner of filth, and we begin to believe that we are a wise and clean people. But while we applaud the larger efforts, at public purification, we complacently pocket day by day bits of paper'redolent of every kind of filth and infected by the microbes of every disease. Does not the one pound bank note represent the moat respected coin in the world? The bank not* is very convenient, when it is necessary to carry about a conaiderable, sum of money. But notwithstanding ite convenience to those who have to pay away large sums in wages, to travellers and others, the wary public is beginning to shy at the bank note on account of its exceeding offensiveness. And we pity the bank clerks who have to handle and re-handle such notes. 9 The privilege conceded to . banks. of issuing notes should be hedged round with conditions, carefully framed, to protect the public health*. Fortunately, as matters now stand, no one is obliged to take a pound note from the bank, if he prefer* to have a sovereign, and the banks would consult their own interests if they were more scrupulous as to the re-issue of dirty notes. The Bank of England never re* issues any note that once comes back to it,. however crisp and clean it may be. We do not urge on banks here such « counsel of perfection, but thsy ought to be far more careful than they are. It will not do merely to hide the dirt. Fortunately, perhaps, the colour cannot hide the small. Although no one need take a note from a bank instead of gold, it would be absurd to suggest to anyone Iα the ordinary transactions of life, to a salesman, for instance, at the cattle yards, or to i tradesman in his shop, that he need not take paper in payment for goods or stock sold. He is only too glad to get it there and then, although he cannot say " non olet" of his honest gains. Wβ ere glad to learn from Wellington that the Health Department im taken the matter up, and that a con- , ference of bank managers wijl probably be invited to discuss the question of more frequent withdrawal of bank notes which have become soiled by too long a circulation, and thereby constitute a menace to the public health. It is to be (hoped that the banks will take prompt acfion in the matter. Whether they do or not it will be advisable in any future bank legislation dealing with the issue of notes to impose such conditions as will secure the safety of the public. Such a provision is Urgently" neceeeary, and w»uld be in the interest of the banks themselves.