COMMISSIONS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2522, 8 September 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

COMMISSIONS.

The London correspondent of the Now Zoalund Times writes:—l am afraid it is a true bill that, as a nation, Englishmen are fast getting infected with that hateful spirit which demands a bribo in some shape or other before the slightest favour can bo rendered, or even the actual duties performed. This miserable failing, which finds expression in Russia especially, and it must be added in the United States also, is usually the mark of a rotten political connection, and should be prevalent only in such communities as the corrupt Kepublic3 of Central and South America, or the unstable kingdoms of south-eastern Europe. How the cancer is spreading here among the middle class we have had evidence enough lately, to which I shall presently refer ; but in the lower ranks of life it is difficult to get anything done without a tip. You are scowled at if the railway porter carries your bag and sees to your luggage for the fair wage which he is paid for performing this very service ; the waiter at the dining room will hardly accept the penny that he was once delighted with ; the cabman will probably roundly abuse you if yon pay him his strict and legal fare ; whilst if you live on a suburban line of omnibuses that are not too frequent, a douceur to the conductor will probably secure you an inside seat on a wet day that would otherwise be filled up, and though something was done some years ago at hotels to restrict the fees (and the same remark applies to theatres), you will not be a very welcome guest the next timo you coire if the coffee-room waiter or the "boots" is not "remembered" when you leave. Probably all over the world this kind of system goes on in some degree, but it is getting insufferable here, and has extended so much to the middle class that a strong hand is needed to curb the license that prevails. There are scarcely any extensive contracts ever carried out without attempts of corruption by the contractors' agents, or the levying of blackmail on the part of those who have the direction of the works. Honest men are of course to be found, and many of them, bat a shrewd observer has remarked that to get on a man requires not talents, though theso are useful, but a strong dash of unscrupulousness. Some years ago the Government of India issued a memorandum to all the engineers in their employ forbidding them to accept commissions of any kind from contractors engaged on Government works. The document excited a great deal of gratuitous anger, and no doubt was felt as a slur by those who were conscious of integrity, but the department was well advised in the course it took. Similarly, of Jate the Directors of gas companies have thought well to issue warnings to their employes, this particularly in consequence of the conduct of the manager of the Salford Gasworks—a man in receipt of a handsome salary, who, nevertheless, during the ten years lie occupied his position managed to accumulate an astonishing amount of money ; aud it being openly stated by a gentleman, who found himself unable to do business with him on honest terms, that he persistently levied blackmail in the shape of from Is to Is 6d a ton 011 every ton of coal delivered at the gasworks, the manager was ill-advised enough to bring an action for libel, which lie not only lost, but perjured himself at the trial as well, and this having been brought home to him, he has been sentenced to five years' penal servitude. As I mentioned in a former letter, a commission is now inquiring into the working of the Metropolitan Board, and in one department (that dealing with the sale and manageineut of surplus lands) an astonishing amount of corruption has been revealed. Commissions were paid right and left, and the most nefarious transactions have been laid bare. Sums of over £11,000 each have been proved against two self-incriminated officials, and three have been summarily dismissed, whilst one has been suspended. What more may yet be disclosed remains to be seen, and two at .least of the actual members of the Board have by no means clean hands. It is high time these things are put a stop to, and tho press publicity ii one of the most powerful agents that can be employed for the purpose. If people cannot be made moral by Act of Parliament, they may, perhaps, be frightened into it by the terrors of the law, when those terrors take the form of penal servitude and hard labour. But, after all, what is needed is a higher Btandard of public opinion. Men guilty of practices like these should be ostracised, instead of which they are too often looked up to as sharp men of business, whom to imitate is a virtue.