CURRENT TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 241, 17 February 1911, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS

PLAYING WITH DEATH. A little message from Canada states that workers set a keg of blasting powder near a fire to "thaw." Five were killed and two injured. Nothing demonstrates more forcibly the old saw that "familiarity breeds contempt" than the carelessness of folk who handle dangerous goods. Only a week ago a message was sent from England telling how a gang of men were arrested before they got into a foul mine and punished for carrying naked lights and smoking. Then there was the case of the New Zealand storekeeper who smoked a cigar near an open bottle of benzine, which ignited and burnt him out. Ladies still clean gloves with benzine before a tire, and generally wear them while doing so, and any housewife knows that beeswax and turpentine if set on the stove to melt sometimes docs not take fire, and sometimes sends housewives to the hospital or the morgue. Miners still tamp "shots" with iron tools, and still "fry" dynamite or gelignite over a fire, still "bite" detonators' round fuses, smoke in magazines, and go back to the "face" just to ascertain why the last shot which was expected to blow some tons of mullock out did not do so. It seems excusable fo: persons whose avocations mean daily risk of death to laugh at it, and so we see men standing on a steel girder a few hundred feet in the air tapping a rivet in with as much coolness as if they were eating their dinners, and note the worker suspended by a thin stoel rope swinging high, overhead with equanimity. Even the average citizen whose avocation leads him into few dangers frequently courts death. A fat man dropping off a Hying tramcar is taking a big risk; the person who stands on the edge of a wharf and leanß over four feet to kiss his mother-in-law on board might be a case for an inquest; the athletic folk who cannot wait until the ferry scrapes the pier before jumping ashore are looking for trouble; and the cyclist who gets through the traffic with half an inch to spare would have an equal chance of safety in a tiger-infested jungle. On the whole, it seems less reprehensible for a person to risk his own life than to risk the lives of others, and so the man who fries dynamite, or carries naked lights, or tamps shot with the wrong kind of tool is not a lovable character. There seems to be enough disasters iu the world without inviting them, and Xew Zealand is certainly not without examples of culpable foolishness. Not very long ago a young electrician who intended to detonate a huge charge of explosives for blasting did not get a contact as quickly as he desired, so he moved to the charge to examine it. Two hundred and fifty tons of rock fell on him. The contact was perfect.

"GOVERNMENT STROKE." i Once there was a carpenter (so the story goes) who was supposed to be effecting' some repairs to the roof of a Government building. A Government clerk, looking out of an office window, e>pied him. Turning to his companion, he remarked: "It is positively disgraceful! I've been watching that carpenter for forty-five minutes ami he has not done, a stroke of work." The obvious query of the clerk's companion wa9, "What were you doing during the forty-five minutes?" When we in New Zealand hear of nepotism and the ladling out of sinecures, we are apt to forget that we are mere copyists. When "retrenchment" comes and a department whioh employed some hundreds of persons' finds it can manage with quarter the number, we infer that a number of people had a rosy time before retrenchment came. When we see the well-worn doormats outside j Ministers' doors and note the beaten track, there is naturally a feeling that a ' number of people are born tired and de- J sire a haven of rest. But we should blame no one for the "Government stroke," because it is so sweet a feature i of all other countries. We were lately told that trades unionists were sorry for the armorers of Woolwich, and asked Mr. Haldane to increase their wages. Mr. Haldane replied that if he accepted the views of the deputation "work would leave Woolwich entirely," which seems to indicate that even" now the workers there seldom break blood-vessels. Sinecurism and the "Government stroke" in Xew Zealand are but as a gentle mist to a cyclone in comparison with the system in Britain. In the employ of the British Government there are "public servants" who never serve, administrators who have no office, leaders of stall' who never see their subordinates, folk who, because of birth or position, are dropped into sinecures, the sole ■work required being the drawing of their salary. The Woolwich armorer, therefore, who finds that Sir Thingummy Something, Chief of the Sealing-wax Department at Downing-street, never leaves Yorkshire, except to go abroad for recuperation, naturally concludes that he, too, being a public servant, should draw salary without service. It must not be imagined that "Government strokes" are plied only in monarchies or in a Kin«'« dependencies. All the Republics manage to create billets for their friends, and if\ President or a Minister can't make his family independent for life at the expense of the taxpayer, well, he's a prettv poor President or Minister. The people are full-blooded—so bleed them!

SECRET COMMISSIONS. The purport and full effect of the Act dealing with secret commissions p'aced upon tlic Statute Book last year do not seem lo be understood as thev should. It is important that people should be fully acquainted with the provisions. Under the Act every person is guilty of an offence if he gives, or agrees to give, "to any agent any gift or other consideration as an inducement or reward for doing or forbearing to do, any act in relation to the principal's affair* or bus:ness, or for showing or having slu.wr. favor or disfavor to any person 1.1 relation to the principal's affairs or busin !?.«. Any gift or consideration to the parent, husband, wife or child, of any agent, or to his partner, clerk or servant, or, at the agent's request or suggestion, to any other person, will be deemed to have been given or offered to the agent. 1 ' An agent is deemed to have corruptly solicited a consideration if In directs, obstructs, or interferes with the proper course of the affairs or business of his principal. An agent is alio guilty of a breach of the law if he fail to disclose to his business principal the fact that he has a pecuniary interest in a, contract. Further, it is an offence for a person to give an agent incorrect receiptor invoices with intent to deceive the principal, and the agent who delivers such false receipt or invoiw to his principal is equally guilty. T:.i:s provision has very far-reaching efi'ecls, and business people should carefully ctnsider how it affects practices lira br.ie been in vogue for many years. There seems, however, (0 be a loophole of escape in section 11. which provides that "nothing in this Act contained shall bo deemed to prohibit or render illegal any recognised practice or usage of any trade or calling existing at the time of the passing of 1 tin's Act if the court before which the matter of such practice or usage is in I question shall be satisfied that such | practice or usage is honest and reason;'!>]n.'' The Act then'defines how and, in what ciiTiimstanees commissions, vchales and allowances mav be paid. The iteiialtics. which are very severe, are as' follow:—Tf 11 corporation, a fine not ex-1 feeding £1000; any other person, impri-

sonmenf with or without hard labor for any period not exceeding two years, or to a fine not exceeding £SOO. Summary conviction: If a corporation, a fine not exceeding £100; any other person, imprisonment up to three months or a fine not exceeding £SO. The Act clearly defines an agent as "any person who is or intends to be employed by or acting tor any other person, whether as agent, servant, broker, auctioneer, architect, solicitor, director, or in any other capacity whatever, either alone or jointly with any other person." "Principal" is defined as "nny person by whom an agent ,s, or has been, or intends or desires to he, employed, or for whom an agent acts, or has acted, or intends to act." Finally, a list is given showing what persons are regarded as agents "for the purposes of the Act."