PASSING NOTES.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 981, 8 January 1883, Page 2

PASSING NOTES.

(All communications to he addressed “ Aladdin," office of this paper.) .

Will the County Council never learn a lesson ? Two years’ “ dog tax ” gone to the dogs, and still call for tenders in the old stupid way ! —“ Wanted tenders for collecting dog tax ; state remuneration expected ” (or words to that effect.) Do you want to bo robbed again ? Folly, folly, folly ! Surely it is simple enough. There must be a fair remuneration, say £2O, for doing the work. Whatever the remuneration should be, advertise it, and. call for applicants. Then you can select the applicant with the best character. If you do not slate the salary you have no means of telling whether the applicant “ wants ye salaryo or whattc he can pyckc uppe.” Look alive ! gentlemen. The clerk to the County Council is having rather a lively time of it for £BO a year. I am certain his work cannot be done under three days a week hard pegging. lam pretty certain the present clerk would never have applied for the appointment at £BO a year if he had ever dreamt of the work to be done for it. Is it not 'unrighteous to let a man agree to do work for £BO a year, when ho manifestly would be underpaid at £2OO even ? It is strange how unconsciously public morality deteriorates in tone in small communities. A happy-go-lucky way of dealing with fellow business men in ordinary transactions gradually undermines a man’s first principles of duty and uprightness. We will suppose he receives trust moneys into his possession. Now there can bo no doubt a strict business man would open a “ trust account ”at the Bank. An unbusinesslike man would possibly pay it into his working business account at the Bank. A sudden emergency arises and he draws a cheque on his Banker, which ho has not funds to meet without trenching on the trust money. Ho shuts his eyes and tries to forget that he knows it. By-and-bye the period of pressure is over and he pays into his working account enough to be able to pay the trust money to the rightful owner. After the first false step the descent is easy. The intervals between using trust moneys paid into the working account and repaying them becomes longer and longer until ho ceases to admit it dishonest to use these trust moneys—if they are paid back ultimately—and stifles his conscience by saying- —“ Oh, it is all right, I shall have a lot of money due next month, and then I’ll replace it. Whore is the impropriety ?” However, a time comes when he cannot pay a claimant of trust moneys without drawing on other trust funds. Then begins the system of robbing Peter to pay Paul. Then lying, forgery, so on, to conceal the crime. The worst feature about it is that small communities seem to bo infected with an extraordinary degree of sympathy for the man. They become indignant if it is proposed to punish him. Is it right to prosecute a man for embezzlement, larceny, or forgery, when he has paid back the money ? No harm has been done—it would be monstrous ! After this Ali Baba and Aladdin in their new criminal agency and association for general depravity, very reasonably hope for the support of public opinion in Patea, this being a very small community. But why is it that when a criminal act is found out it is the sequel for tears of sympathy ?

This reminded mo of an anecdote Grildrig told me. An American jury once acquitted a man charged with embezzlement, the evidence having shown that although for years ho had escaped detection, ho was clearly guilty. The old judge, boiling with indignation, turned to the prisoner, and said ; “ Prisoner at the bar, — Yon arc a degraded rogue. Yon have been a consummate scoundrel. lam not surprised at the verdict of the jury : you command their respect !!” If “ Quiz ” will send me an instance of what lie considers an infringement of the law, I shall be glad to look into it with my usual enriosty. Aladdin.