THE CHAUFFEUR PROBLEM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 282, 1 May 1914, Page 6

THE CHAUFFEUR PROBLEM.

Mr J. F. Blakeborough writes in the Autocar:— Those who employ chall'eurs not only want a man who will be careful of lb;; safety of their own person, their car, and of things animate and inanimate on the high road, but they also want a man who will not "rub them up the wrong way," and who will not ''get on t.iuir nerves," and who will not forget -that he is a servant.

Many others are sufficiently conservative to prefer the old order of servant with till the tradition —honorable tradition withal!—and thus it is that so many country gentlemen have insisted ou having as their cliafTeyrs men wno have descended from a line of old family servants, and are possessed of the nhcrent spirit of faithfulness, deference, and loyalty.

Mr H. Stuart Mcnzies -evidently has no very high opinion of the latter-day addition to the ranks .of servitude —the chall'eur —though he admitted in. an article contributed to a recent issue of "Baily" that: "A survey of the 'evolution of the cluifi'eur during the last fifteen years shows clearly that great improvements have come about, both in regard to the efficiency of the men and the decrease in their cost."

•Ml' Menzies precedes the extract quoted by a reference to the subject of personality which has already been referred to. lie say's—and I for one agree.

"The rapid evolution of the chart'eur during the recent years' has made the problem of his employment an ever changing one to the motor car owners. Other sorts of domestic servants have matured with the slow moving of the society they serve, but the chaffenr's calling is of mushroom growth in comparison, and iinality has scarcely yet been reached.This lack of finality in the relationship between man and his employer is responsible. for many of the motorist's troubles, for—with fortunate exceptions—the paid drivers are a greatsource of trouble to car owners"than the highly efficient machine tliey drive." We are told that good men" in this calling are fewer than in any other sphere of domestic calling, and until the clialTeur becomes inoculated with some of the. spirit and tradition of the oh class of family servant to counter . present-day socialistic tendencies. wwill never win his way into the hi ;-(s and affections of those whom lie scr.es, as did, and do, that old class of servant friend. Let it not be thought for one moment that I am urging servility. I am not merely counselling chaffeurs to be something more than mere hewers of water and drawers of water, to feel a. real desire to Serve those with whom their lot lias 'been cast, and so to engender mutual respect.