FOR THE BUDDING GO-GETTER

NZ Truth, Issue 1187, 30 August 1928, Page 9

FOR THE BUDDING GO-GETTER

Why Eric Hood Preferred Pavement To The Hard Road

(From "N.Z. Truth's". Special Auckland Representative.)

// a canvasser should call at your door and endeavor to impress ygu with a long string of rhetoric about the marvellous bargain he is putting your way, you may rest assured, that his effusion is not necessarily the outcome of his own genius for salesmanship. ;

DATHER, is it merely something' lie ** has learned parrot-fashion, from printed instructions supplied by his principals. One. such set of instructions, allegedly issued by the Sheffield Supply Co., Auckland, came' before the Hamilton Court, last week, when a canvasser for the Arm, named Eric George Hood pleaded -guilty to the theft of £33, the property of his firm. Accused had adopted the simple pro- | cess of selling cases of cutlery and putting the money into his own pocket, instead of sending it on to headquarters. In asking for probation for accused, Lawyer L. Tompkins said the man was more sinned against ithan sinning. He happened to have been out of work when- he was met m Hamilton^ by a man named Etnmamiel, who represented,the Sheffield Supply Co., of Endean's buildings, Auckland. The. latter painted a glowing picture of the wealth accumulated by cutlery canvassers working on commission, and he induced accused to go on the road with some of the firm's goods. Counsel said that Emmanuel must have known that it ,was almost impossible for an agent tb make a living by this means, as four other canvassers had thrown up the game m the district within a very short period. In three months accused had earned only £20, out of which he had to pay travelling expenses and board and lodging, which practically meant starvation. Accused, said counsel, prior to going on the road, had been issued with several sheets of- typed instructions which actually misrepresented accused's position. He was, m the first place, '.told to say he was out direct from England, representing the manufacturers of the goods he sold. It- woa interesting and amusing, said

counsel, to peruse these typed instructions, containing all the patter accused had to learn for the sale of the goods. When presenting himself at a door he was to open with: " is my name. I am resident representative m. — : — for the whole of my district under the special British Trades Promotion campaign." "Which," said Lawyer Tompkins, "is all a lot of balderdash." Then comes the objectionable injunction, m brackets ("At this point agent must gain admittance"). Then the instruction: "Sales talk once inside the house must be thus:, 'Now madam, before showing you the special offer, I would like you to thoroughly understand the reason why you are being visited under this trades campaign." A distinct favor thus to be waited on, readers will observe. "Firstly, this is an offer made at Home factory cost, eliminating the seven middlemen — .wholesaler, warehouseman, retailer, importer, indentor, exporter and buying agent over the other side." And thus proceeded this jargon through several closely-typed pages, with every here and there a special instruction m brackets • as to the precise point at which ,to open the case and to display the separate articles, with a detailed description of each. Hood was, m all, four times before the court, on three of which suppression of his name was ordered. When he appeared for sentence the magistrate said that m view of the favorable nature of the probation officer's report, he would place accused on probation for 12 months. A further application for the suppression of his name was refused.