SCANDALS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 20, 21 December 1883, Page 2

SCANDALS.

(Patea Mail.} i>->. Commercially speaking, we are at a low ebb j iisfc now. But we shall go ? lower yet, priless some of the foolish practices that are being indulged m m town, are stopped. It is a "delicate" subject to speak about, but there is no use mincing the matter. We say, then, that there is a fearful lot of scandal being circulated^ which is doing the 1 place incalculable injriiry. When we say scandal, we do not mean that sprt of gossip that Mrs Grundy indulges m over her afternoon cup of tea. That is a comparatively innocent amusement, and constitutes part Of the daily; routine m tho life of a fashionable lady] so that not. much notice is taken of it. By scandal, then, we mean a much graver thing, namely„the robbing of a neighbour of his commercial good name. Unfortunately we have had a good many failures here: .good, bad, and indifferent— mostly bad — but surely it is enough that yie have the past to lament, without pointing the finger at those who.hfive weathered the storm so far. To say that ' So-and-So is bound to go' is unkind, ungenerous, and suicidal as well. A few .slighting words may be ,the means of; causing the. withdrawal of some little assistance,, with the help of which a tradesman. might haye safely" tided over the dull times, but without which he wonld.have to come tp grief.' Apd each fresh failure recoils with more or leys severity upon those who are lett,. ;■ Confidence.,; ■al ready j shaky, receives a further shock, and capital is kept under lock and key. Beside* this, the place isrbeginning to be shunned _y the " bagmen," a very bad sign indeed. Many of theni. are under positive orders to give Jftatea a wide berth, but if! by

chanco one does alight here, +hat fol■{J* 8 - ? a / d, y he swalloued his dinner before he has been told the circumstances of every tradesman m the JSE* ? v I P ro P hec y that any one of thfePi is habie to « bust' 5 right away. Our bagman takes all this m, or say he takes half, it does 'nt matter. He tells the first chum he meets on the road how things are, and by the time tho news gets into second hands it has grown to an alarming extent. It trayebi around, . ,aiuL4hus~a»iehief is worked We venture /to think that it would. be. well it- people would mind then- own .business^ -little move, and other people's a little less. The regretted failures of the past few months, weeks we might say, afford enough to talk about without tryiug to drive juuls mto^the coffin, of those who have : hitherto beepjable: to jkeep thpir doors open, and pay twenty shillings m the