CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 280, 19 April 1911, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

" G EXTLEMEN—THE KING!" Most people bump up against convention in order to direct attention to their imoonventionality. It is a form of conceit more glaring than mere observance or ordinary standards of life. The Australian Speaker, for instance, who declared he would not wear the Speaker's robe and wig, was not doing anyone any good by his refusal, but he was trying to show what a very democratic Speaker he could be. The other day some "leading union officials" at Broken Hill refused to honor the toast of "The King" in the conventional way. It did not do the King any harm, and it only drew attention to the bad manners of the "leading union officials." The officials will be bound to respect the attitude of lesser union officials who in the future arc unconventional enough to object to a chairman ruling a meeting. Arrogant superiority is offensive in a duke or in a dustman. The man who happened to be not arrogantly superior would not go to a function where ho knew the toast of "The King" would be honored. He would not display his conceit. He would not advertise his contempt of a modest Sovereign who at the moment is doing all be ear to make Sunday labor in Britain a thing of the past. It is interesting to try to understand the mental attitude of offensive persons who in an obscure corner of the earth ask the universe to cast its eye on them. The objection of two inferior persons to a monarch ought at once to annihilate him, but the only effect it has is to induce a belief in the unthinking that Australia objects to Royal rule and to direct attention to persons whose work is always destructive and never constructive. If King George objected to a Broken Hill union official he possibly would not attend a union function in order to say so. Personal conceit is expressed in many ways in these days of universal emancipation. The famous instance of a southern meeting of twelve men passing a tcrrifie resolution which was forwarded to the Czar, protesting at his misrule of Russia, is one of the finest instances of vanity New Zealand has seen. In the meantime, although the Czar may not have discovered where New Zealand is, King George, being of a studious disposition, may search his maps for the mining town where two whole union officials have jeopardised the Imperial throne by remaining seated when everyone else rose to honor the idea of Empire conveyed in the conventional term, "The King." Nothing quite so stupid in conceit has happened for some time. SECRET COMMISSIONS. The Secret Commissions Act, passed last session, is a very useful measure, and one that may force a proportion of folk doing illegitimate business to give up the enterprise. The making of a law, however, does not cure humanity of a desire to get something for nothing, and one might take the liberty of holding that it will be extremely difficult to entirely annihilate a system that poisons business life. As every business man is aware, the secret commission evil is widespread. From the private person who rushes to the land buyer and then to the land agent, telling the one he has found a property and the other than he has obtained a client, to the domestic servant who puts a tradesman "in the way" of a new customer, there is no difference except in degree, if there is a cash consideration. Many people have always looked upon the gathering in of secret commissions as perfectly legitimate, but they no longer have the excuse that no restraint is put on their actions. The temptation, however, to make unexpected "rises" even with a restrictive law in operation may have the effect of making the working of secret commissions even more secret. A simple illustration of the well-known art of "making a rise": ft was in the potato season, and a man in a depot town conceived the bright plan of riding out to the cross roads a couple of miles from town and there waiting for the loads comins in. Although he had no connection with any firm, he influenced many of the sellers to take their produce to a certain business man. and, of course, was ultimately paid handsomely. There is no doubt that such a man would consider himself perfectly and legally justified in receiving the result of his enterprise, but, like the rest, liis "little game is up"—if ho happens to be found out. One of the most bare-faced forms of ilic evil lias been illustrated repeatedly in the methods pursued by servants of various bodies. "Secretarial discount" and allied charges made by salaried persons will happily disappear. If it is possible to cheek every form of secret commission, business life will be made much sweeter, and numberless persons whose whole existence is used up in formulating schemes for the gathering in of unearned money will have to join the industrial ranks.