TOPICS OP THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13008, 9 January 1908, Page 6

TOPICS OP THE DAY.

When th© last A Slump mail loft London in there were indica-Christmas-Boxes. tions of a slump in Christmasboxes. Tho authorities were not agreed on tho interpretation of tho new Act, which makes it an offence to give secret commissions or presents to subordin> ate® to induce them to do anything which may operate against their employers' interests. Until the point waa cleared up, tradesmen who had been in th© habit of giving Christmas-boxes to servants- of customers, did so at their own risk. Tbo Attorney-General declared that Christmas-boxes, «openly and honestly given as such," could nob be considered illegal, but Sir Edward Fry, a very eminent lawyer, held that the question remained as to what was open and what was honest. "I would not advise anyone to think that Christmasboxes given to the servants of a_customer are always either open or honest." He therefor© advised shopkeepers to give presents only to those servants who had-the express sanction of their employers. Some firms circulated forms for employers to sign, the following emanating from a firm of seed merchants:—"l have no objection to an acknowledgment being given to my servant for care bestowed/-by m on the cultivation of aeeds supplied by you." If tho custom is knocked on the head, it will benefit some lines of trade and hurt others. . The custom has cost tho butchers of London alone more than £35,000 annually. . A butcher with a £100-a-week business distributes £15 or £20;. while a £400-a-week trade entails an outlay of £60. "The averago annual outlay of each of the 5000 butchers in Greater London is about £7," says an official estimate. "Tho cook expects it. Some West End cooks even go so far as to expect Is in the pound for the whole year's business. This is equivalent to 6 per cent, commission. Wo appeal to the public to stop this custom. Tbe traders can't afford it." The grocers spend £20,000, and, quite apart from the legality of their action, aro'finding tho Christmeeboxes a tax in these days of keen competition. On th© other hand, a large fishmonger estimated that ho would lose over £1000 by the decline of th© custom. "Punch" had a cartoon on tho subject which may prove to have been prophetic. "What! no secret commissions?" said tho cook to the butler in effect. "How am Ito live?" The butler's advice was to fall over the coal-scuttle, and take it out of master tlirough the Compensation for Accidents Act.

The recent attempt at robA bery in the Toulouse-Paris Daring express would make a Robbery, magnificent chapter in a sensational novel. Tbe train stopped at Etampes between, three and four in the morning, and three men, muffled to the chin, were observed to get on. Shortly after leaving Etampes th© train slowed down because of the'remetaUing of th© line, and while the traio was traversing this stretch three men were observed by the occupants of a third-class carriage to walk along the footboard towards tbe head of the train. In front of this first-class carriage was an iron-pirated waggon containing valuables. Two guards sorting parcels inside heard the tound of a key in the lock of the door. and in a moment two men sprang into the waggon. Tho guards grappled with them at Once, but tho robbers drew revolvers, and wounded tho sorters. Two of tbe robbers stood over tho wounded men, and tho third threw money and parcels out of th© door. Then tho .tables were turned. The lamp which lighted the van fell down and went out, and the guards seised their opportunity, one rushing for the emergency brake while the other, pulled the alarm signal. The

robbers fired several shots at the two: men and dashed out of the van. One of the guards, wounded though he was, ran after them, followed by a score of nasengers. A fireman and a gendarme speedily gained, on tho robbers, who, after running along the line, mad© for a hedge which separates the railway from the main road. As* thoy ran hither and thither looking for an opening their pursuers came np, but revolvers were levelled and the unarmed men had to retire. Tho robbers then broke through tho hedge and got away. The investigations of the police go to show that accomplices of the robbers followed tho train in an automobile, probably picked up the bags of money, and helped the principals to escape. The robbers must have made themselves acquainted with tho fact that tho train slowed down at this point, and that remittances from the principal provincial stations were sent to the head offico in Paris on a certain day, for these remittances were their chief object.

Major Phillip Trevor, Australian tho manager of the Traits. M.C.C. team now in Australia, writes as entertainingly on social subjects as on cricket. His impressions of Australian society, contributed to the London "Daily Telegraph," do not pretend to bo deep or exhaustive, but they contain, nevertheless, several points of interest. He had quite failed, ho says, to get from printed matter a glimpse of the real ©very-day life of th© Australian colonist. Lurid bush fiction and tho Australian on the stage ore not reliable guides to <\ knowledge of Australian life, and the Major confesses that when ho arrived at Perth ho was appallingly ignorant of it. ''Wo know exactly what tho stag© Australian will bo like, and exactly what he will do the instant we read tho programme. Ho will have at least one million of money and the handgrip of a. fiorilla. He will lack an *h' and a wife, though the-latter deficiency will usually be supplied in the hist act. He will speak of himself at intervals as a rough diamond, and tho other characters will speak of him as Nature's gentleman. I am hoping to meet this person, before my visit to Australia closes, but my most optimistic friends in that country hold out very little hope of my even being able to gratify my wash." Australia, in Major Trevor's opinion, furnishes an exception to the rule that no country gives of 1 its best through tho medium of its travellers. Th© average traveJ-. ling Englishmen is on good sense and good taste," but tho best Australians visit England, and tho pity is that they do not proclaim their nationality, for " then Englishmen would see what fine fellows Australia produces. Unlike tho' American, the Australian does not regard England as little/ returns home pleased with the Mother Country, and has even a charitable word for its oHtnsvte. If there is snobbery in Australia, much, if not all, of the blame must be laid at tho door of the travelling Engh'shimaa. The Australian's independence is defensive, not offensive, implying that '- when meeting an Englishman he is "look-1 ing out for squalls." He hates pose, and ho meets it in the patronising Englishmen with a -biua&ness which disconcerts. "Tho f Australian turns on the ooM shower'at th© outset, aid, after all, the rosin use of cold watei' is to refresh. The tendency of the Australian, treatment as to refresh."