An Enterprising Townsman.

Te Aroha News, Volume XIV, Issue 2133, 23 July 1898, Page 2

An Enterprising Townsman.

Mr J. B. Johnson, our leading iron,monger, advertises in another column the disposal of his immense and varied stock at cost prices. A glance round. Mr Johnson’s extensive premises in Whitaker, Street, convinces us that there is nothing of value to a settler tor householder that he is not in a' position to supply at prices that simply defy competition. In making this' statement we do so advisedly. We hear much about the lowness efprioes in Auckland and the impossibility of matching them in the country. To Mr Johnson is due the credit of showing how it can be done. He has made and commands a very large volume of the trade of the and this he has achieved by skilfully anticipating the wants of his customers, supplying them at the right moment, at moderate prices, with the very article they want, and by persistently keeping his finger on. the pulses of the various markets qualified himself to buy at, what is known in the end-of-the-century phrase, as the psychological moment. The consequence is he, like the famous ‘Eclipse,’ is first, the rest nowhere. The old style of tradesman sitting behind his counter, spectacle on nose, perusing the daily paper and- waiting for his customers, is rapidly becoming as extinct as the .dodo. Qe is being shouldered out of. the way by live energetic men like Mr Ben Johnson. He has got to go,. , The people recognise in men of Mr Johnson’s stump the best class of citizens.—t'ie class that produces men who are bound to get on and take the townohip with them, sjieir intf, rest| and: those of district.lire tak<|_ oni cquld alifibst sky*.{a in the success of air its local institutions. They dimly recognise the truth, ofßuekin’s oft quoted saying Ithat al man who is entirely for himself may make a temporary rise in the world, but abiding success and. he must ever remain strangers .to each othei. In the great battle of the survival of the fittest, it is not the Hooleys, Bottomleys or Barnatos who pan out the best. The foundation upon which men of their type rear the glittering edifice of their fortunes is too narrow; selfishness to wit. Let a man but link his fortunes wish those of a growing community like Te Aroha, d voting at, least a tithe of his abilities to her betterment and the support of local institutions and his fortunes from that moment are fairly placed-upon tl»e rails, and ho has onlj' ■o keeping 'going ahead, to reach the station, where affluence and the whole-hearted respect of his fellow townsmen await him. ,