A NATIONAL HABIT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 153, 7 October 1910, Page 4

A NATIONAL HABIT.

"Beware when all men speak well of you." As "money talks," if all men heap sovereigns into your pockets they seem to be speaiking as well as.possible of you. This prefatory' to remarking that the habit of eulogy becomes so common that few nowadays really accept it as sincere. Everybody knows the kind of occasion indicated. A man has lived in a community for some years. He has done no harm. He has just steadily worked along, and is just a normal, everyday citizen. He leaves the district, but before he goes it is necessary that a "spontaneous recognition" of his normality should be given. So some enthusiast—not necessarily a bosom friend —suggests a "smoker," or a "drinker,' at which all the things that have been noticed before may be said in weary praise of the person who is merely moving on and not off the face of the earth. It is not necessary for the person to be eulogised to have served the public. It is only necessary that the habit of pre-sent-making shall be adhered to. The spontaneous recognition of the worth of a citizen generally begins a week or so before the great valedictory festivity, and an enthusiast approaches the potential signatory to an address and a "purse of sovereigns," who sighs lustily, looks gloomy, and puts down his subscription, mainly because the names of Green ami Pink and the others are on the list. In the matter of public officers who are in the course of their work transferred to other places, the send-off presentation is merely a public nuisance, and is no indication of the esteem in which he has been held. This presentation and eulogy habit has; especially in the cities, become a severe tax. indeed, in at least two great buildings where many men are employed, and where, of course, transfers are' frequent, it has been found necessary to institute funds so tbat the taxwill not be severe when the blow falls. The fact that in both the buildings the object of the presentation and eulogy may not be known to one-quarter of the contributors is" an indication that the eulogy must be strained. There seems to be no real reason for eulogising a man for having done the work for which he receives his wages, or for mayors or Chairmen of road boards and the rest to make the same perfervid orations year after year with different individuals for the object. It gratifies a man, or a woman, who has been greatly liked bv a circle of friends or socltty and who has worked faithfully for them to be told so by his or her intimates and to receive their presents, but as the t average modest giver carefully removes the sale ticket from the present he or she gives to his or her friend, so should the collective giver of gifts refrain from making gift occasions the reason for outbursts of insincerity, tall talk, ami mathematical and bare-faced canvassing among people who are not concerned.