PERFECTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 192, 15 August 1925, Page 21

PERFECTION.

THE RARE THING LACKING.

SOME OF ITS ASPECTS

(By ARTHUR SAINSBURY.)

Perfection is the one thing in life that cannot be overdone. That hypothesis is a safe springing-board from which to dive into the icy depths oi our present exploration of mankind's deficiencies, because it is so perfectly obvious that a thing overdone is not perfect. You hear a woman sometimes speak of another of her sex ''making herself a martyr" to her housework by her terrible insistence on perfection. If that insistence is voluntary, then the result is not perfection if it is achieved at a disproportionate loss of the joy of life. The definition of "perfection" is not quite simple. Naturally it must be something that resists all the acid tests it encounters. A work of art must be not only artistic, soothing, educative, uplifting, or amusing. Its cost must have been reasonable. An architectural design must not only reach to the sublime heights the artist aspired to. It must—whether to materialise a uni-

versify or house a street navvy—cost no more than its value.

But let us leave the university spire, and descend to the sidewalk for our matter. In order to be perfect, a thing must achieve its objective to the maximum degree. Therefore you must first fully determine the aim.

Take the humblest individual, the crossing sweeper. He is not yet conspicuous in Auckland, but they have many of him in Sydney. A perfect crossing sweeper should sweep rapidly, cleanly, industriously, cheaply, and with an agility that does not trammel the traffic, and lets him escape with his life. In Sydney the boys are so slow and expensive (therefore imperfect) after they reach manly proportions that they are to be superseded when they cease to be boys.

If I were a lawyer aiming to be perfect, I would invent a new series of standard documents, mortgage deeds, memoranda of agreements, by-laws, and so, on, which any Fourth Standard boy could understand. I should tell myself it is using undue influence, if not actual swindling, to fetter the unlettered by verbiage they cannot be expected clearly and confidently to ken. I should eliminate from my perfect documents all obligations and restrictions not contemplated by the parties to the transaction, and substitute (where safeguards were obviously needed) reasonable clauses not unduly tyrannical to what I may call the "defendant" to the transaction, in which term may usually he classed the purchaser or lessee in a deal and the borrower of a loan. I would— being the perfect lawyer—think it my duty to compel my client to be fair to his opponent; while at the same time I would be a veritable tiger against any trickster against him. And if any loss befel my client through my own forgetfulness I should certainly pay him the full equivalent without being asked. I should fight many a court case without fee where the cause was good; and 1 should never cease attacking the faults of our laws and their administration. I fear that, as the perfect lawyer, 1 should broadcast much sorrow.

If I were beginning a career as a reporter I should first have a clear understanding with myself. I would say a reporter's job is to write interesting things —to project ideas upon the little bit.of grey matter in the heads of my paper's readers. Well, then, I must, in order to accomplish my purpose, write simple words, short clear sentences, and enlivening ideas that are worth the valuable space they will occupy. I must first understand what I am going to write about, and then write so that everybody else can understand it. I must not use a long word or sentence if a short one equally expresses it, and not use two words if I can convey the meaning effectively in one. ; I must resolutely study human nature —especially my-own paper's group—seek out the news, worth while,; tell everything that is essential to. a complete, crisp story, and not a word more. Paper and printers' work and readers' time are all expensive. To-day one wants only the salient points. To-day we are learning to read only the headings—which often is the "sub's" job. In the year 2000, with-Auckland's enormous daily news harvest, what shall we have time to read in the "Star" except the bare headings? I think the great newspaper man of the future will be the artist in headlines and the writer in nutshells. The perfect reporter is a changing entity. His "stuff" must be not only crisp, wholesome, instructive, helpful, entertaining and fair, with a little'guilty bias towards every good "cause that needs assistance," but also adusting itself to the changing needs and aspiring to the higher opportunities. A reporter without ambition for the greater chance to uplift the world is a rather dead fellow. But, then, how monotonous it would be _ we were all perfectl

If I were a Prime Minister I would 6ay: "This is my opportunity, my privilege, my responsibility. It will be my crime if I unconcernedly fail. What are the things wrong in my country? What are the classes that are below par? What are the causes that leave so many thousands without their fair bite of the apple of life? And what are the possible' cures?" Aa Premier I should exhibit. *■• lamentable - contempt

for the precedents, the conventions, and any heed for "what is being done this season." The old order, if defective, would gp, pronto. The faulty pieces of our constitution's structure that I could upset without a crash I should upset. Where the requirements of existing regulations and the interminable labyrinth, of routine challenge real advancement' I would juggernaut over them I would say: "I am not made P«bim. Jad_e: Buudit* things

that are our nation's bitterest maladies, but to remove, remodel, rebuild, cast out, or drag in as the need demands" — subject only to the inviolable law that every step attempted must be for the people's average good. With mc as Premier—the perfect Premier —what a place New Zealand would he! Our cemeteries would grow rapidly full with the graves of those who had died violently from very fear, of'the greatness of the oiUeniuai. -'-1 'do not -know if 'we could

really endure the shock of real speeding reform on top gear. We always like to go gently, and discuss our national exigencies over our toothpicks. We view reform very much as we view a picture story. Though we yearn for the climax we yet dread lest it shall come too soon. So, as the perfect Premier, viewed in that light, I might be a tragic triumph that none but posterity of 2000 A.D. would appreciate. rd : better-leave it'tb the man ©a the job.