The Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, MAY 11, 1907. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3765, 11 May 1907, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, MAY 11, 1907. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The Personal Asset. —The greatest asset in any business is one that never figures in the balance-sheet (says Ironmonger). It is one that cannot be rendered in terms of finance, and that defies the cold analysis of the valuer. Some men never discover it, and hence fail to realise its vital import. Others find it accidentally and wisely turn it to account, a few are driven right on to it by the force of circumstance. This curious asset is nothing else than-one’s own self, and when all else fails time will not be wasted in the endeavour to find out how much real worth there is in that. Presuming that every man has some kind of an aim, and that the number who realise that.aim in all hs complete-, ness is small, it is natural to conclude that the man of real earnestness, who nevertheless does not make the progress that is satisfactory to him, will be occupied in looking round to detect the flaw in the machinery. Perhaps he may find it in some small but telling matter connected with his stock, his staff, his locality, or. other similar influences. In other cases he may not be able to put his finger upon any one thing, and say “here is something wrong”; everything may be in order, and nothing lacking but trade. Then it is, that he should turn the searchlight upon himself, and, assuming that the cause must be there, estimate with courage the value of the asset of his own spirit. In every rank of life, the men who have risen to the summit have been men who believed in their own power to overcome and to ■win, and this conquering individual was never needed more than now. ■ ’ 4 Public Morals. —In the course of a sermon in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Auckland, Father Clune made an attack on the public morals of the present day, which, he said, were of a very low standard. The first evil was immorality. Whenever two or three were gathered together, the foundation of their conversation was

this pernicious vice. It had entered into the social life of the people. Statues and books were displayed calculated to degrade their moral sense. The statues were only fit for a temple of Venus, and the books he referred to were saturated with immoral literature. Those who had studied the matter were coming to the conclusion that the printing Press, instead of being a blessing, was going to be a curse to humanity. The second great evil was materialism, or the greed of. riches, wealth, and luxury. The pagan\gospel was as true to-day as ever it was, namely, “ Let us drink and make merry, and crown ourselves with roses, for we will be long enough in the grave.’’