TRUCK SYSTEM.

Observer, Volume 6, Issue 146, 30 June 1883, Page 227

TRUCK SYSTEM.

In a certain mill in the north of Auckland, this infamous system is still in full swing. Although there are not any notices posted in conspicuous places, informing the employes that they are expected to deal at the " company's store," yet indirectly it is pretty well-known that . such are the terms of employment, and in another -way the screw is put on by strictly adhering to the rule of quarterly, cash, payments, though credit for goods at the store is unlimited. When a man has been working for some time, he does not feel the pressure so muoh., but a new hand coming in the first fortnight of a quarter, has to wait two months and .'.-h:ilt before he can get even sufficient ready money to settle his washing bill or other vrtiy account, while he is also compelled .^.-^■i^ goods in fiic mill store at credit prices, not . ;WP% ready money to go elsewhere. Of course, .■■otpaysiho company to receive the interest on the ' money in their hands, but, in mere justice, should not this interest be the working-men's perquisite instead of his employer's ? ♦

MR LAISHLBT AND PHYSIOGNOMY. To the Editor : Sir, — Permit me through your •columns to address a few remarks to Mr Laishley, <the Chairman of the Auckland Board of Education, on the subject of physiognomy and its relation to scholastic acquirements. Some time jsince I read a series of papers on Education, in the -columns of the Herald, from the pen of Mr iaishley . A perusal of those papers, which I may igay are utterly and entirely beyond my comprehension, has loft- only one impression on my mind, •.and that may be condensed into the old Spanish jproverb, "La verdad adelgazo pero no quiebra" But so far as my memory serveth me, there was nothing in those papers to guide . the ignorant jmblic in the art of detecting a schoolmaster's by the expression of his face. This •was a serious omission, looking at our local Solon's latest scholastically official utterance anent Mr • 'Talbot's features. After finding that none of the charges made against Mr Talbot could be .sheeted home to him, Mr Laishley, in spite of overwhelming evidenoe to the contrary, summed up by saying that the charge o£ intoxication was proved, and besides this, he had been studying Mr Talbofs features, and from Ms knowledge of physiognomy he was quite convinced that Mr Talbot was most unfitted J"or a teacher of the young. I suppose Mr Laishley is acquainted with Latin, so I present Mm with the following : " Justiticß paries sunt man violare homines ; verecundics non offendere."

*— ■ Mr Laisliley is not the first man in Auckland •who, holding an authoritative position, has dared to take a man's physiognomy into account, and sum up on that ground against him. Some years back, when our local Solon was in his swaddling clothes, a certain J.P. thus delivered himself from the Auckland bench •• " Take him away," he to the policeman, of a man brought before him, . jm give him three months, his face is quite enough TO>" condemn him." The Auckland Provincial •Council was in session at the time, and I well recollect a membor bringing the matter before -the' Council the same erening. He glanced -round the Chamber in the course of his speech .and said, " I should like to know what honourable member will be safe, if this sort of thing is - to pass unchallenged." Now, everybody knows that some of the grandest intellects have been enclosed in rough caskets. Begular features ■and 'a soft and pleasing expression are by no ' means always an . accompaniment of intellectual or moral excellence. But, as regards Mr Talbot, here \yas a man on his trial for sins hehad never com-. mittedjbut his judge, Mr Laishley, notwithstanding - the strongest evidence in his favour, persisted in ;' summing up over and over again dead against him. Now, had I been in Mr Talbot's place, I *'■ should not' have felt inclined , to turn a, smiling ' ! ;f ice and put on my. sweetest expression for Mr • IJaishleyiß benefit; neither could he expect it. • \I should have endeavoured to have shown by mj

countenance precisely my feelings tpf*a, man Mac? could act as Mr Laishley acted. I should have enTdeaYoflre'd','"" ib f&r'as "to Have 'expressed one half contempt, one fourth, scorn, and the remainder pity. — I am, etc., Pisibtbattjs. . / . — ♦ — —.