COMMERCIAL MORALITY

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 460, 5 April 1890, Page 5

COMMERCIAL MORALITY

Auckland, April 1. At the Temperance Hall onSundaynighb the Rev. E. H. Gulliver gave his second lecture on the above subject. After briefly recapitulating the leading points of his previous lecture he passed on to the consideration of the two most sciiking features of modern commercial life, viz. : Credit, and competition. The system of credit although it had its uses, was liable to great abuse, it led to wild speculations which might be compared to the bubbles blown by children, very gay and pretty to look at, reflecting the prismatic colours, in the sunshine of prosperity, but fated soon to burst and vanish into thin air. We read of the wealth of England amounting to fabulous sums—amounts perfectly inconceivable and beyond even the dreams of avarice, but what did it all mean ? It meant that to a greatexten tit was founded on credit, for there was not money enough in the whole world to represent it if it were called in. There is a certain advantage derived from credit, as, for instance, when it is used to enable a skilled artisan to put his labour in motion, or tc start some large undertaking which could nob be carried out without capital, and that capital for the most part comes from “ credit.” But when “ bad times ” come, then the credit which had helped them in the good times is apt to prove “a broken reed”—the bland and genial bank manager changes his tone, and the request to “reduce your overdraft” makes you realise that the other side of “credit” is “debt.” Now there is no more terrible word in the English language than “ debt.” By its fatal influence domestic peace is broken, harmony gives place to discord, the debtor shrinks from meeting his creditors in the street, and his whole life, is degraded and enslaved. As with the individual so with the nation. What has caueed our chronic depression, and practically ruined this colony 1 lb is the terrible “national debt” that is dragging us down to bankruptcy. Debt then — or rather “ credit,” is one of the factors whose abuse is thus destructive ot commercial morality; but there is yet another factor to be considered, and that is “competition.” If by any means the British people could be compelled to erect a statue to their most powerful god, that statue would be dedicated to “Competition.” Its evil influence begins in our schools, where our children are brained in the idea that their one aim in fife should be to surpass and eclipse their fellows. As they grow up they find this idea confirmed and strengthened on all hands, and that the competitive examination of their childhood was bub a mild type of the frantic and demoralising competition of their after life. Some of them might have read a clever book called “ Looking Backward, ■ and would remember the author’s satire on the spirit of this age, which expresses itself in the advertising cry echoed from every newspaper and blazoned on every wall—“ Remember, oh! remember John Jones! never mind the other fellows, but for God’s sake remember John Jones.” What a farce it is. I We talk of our “ brotherhood,” and of our “ imitation of Christ,” and yet spend our lives in sacrificing all that is most precious on the altar of our god “Competition.” This cut-throat racing goes on up to a certain point, bub not for ever; the cutting reaches its limit, it can go no further, and the next step is into the Bankruptcy Court; the modern ideal of fife is worked out, “ Credit and “Competition” have kissed each other, and the result is U Bankruptcy.” >ln conclusion, the lecturer, expressed his/belief that, in the - best interests of-social and commercial morality, the bankruptoy laws should be abolished .altogether;; that the State had no right to assume the power of forgiving debts ; and that by so doing.tho State usurped the prerogative of the-indir vidual and lowered, t v qe n).qral tone -of society. , '• - . ' '“'.fir