THE ART OF SHUTTING UP

Evening Star, Issue 17329, 17 April 1920, Page 2

THE ART OF SHUTTING UP

ONE OF LIFE’S PROBLEMS. A TRADER WHO TALKED TOO MUCH. [By A. E. Quarks! Special Commissioner for the ‘ Evening Star.’] “We are treated worse than they were in Siberia in the day of the Tsar, threatened with irons, and told we are not fit to be trusted,” said a trader, i h a voice choking with indignation, one one of the islands visited by the jwriiamentary party the Mokoia. They were placing their little grievances and dejirea before the Minister in Charge. Sir Janies Allen had just complimented their spokesman on the manner in which he had clarified their troubles to the members of Parliament. That little compliment was this trader’s undoing. Ho had found a sympathetic hearer, and tJ him he would expound the underlying causes of the friction which was clogging the wheels of progress in that island. This was the genesis of his outburst, already recorded, and he went on to make a case which speedily began to look as if it would take a, lot of answering, “How would you like,” he went on in a voice trembling with emotion, “to be told you would be, handcuffed and sent to gaol iu Auckland ? How would vou like to he told you were not fit' to enter the Commissioner’s office, and that he wondered you had the cheek to go. into itP And me, a respectable citizen of New Zealand for years and years? I only came down here six years ago for my health, and then I get treated like this! Then I’ve been ordered stout for my health by several doctors, but though I can assure you X was very ill and spitting blood' at Christmas, the Commissioner would not let me have a drop. What do you think of a man who could do a thing like that? I had a case of stout sent up here, with a bottle of whisky and’ a Dottle of brandy with it. and I couldn’t even get the stout. 'I hate brandy—can’t stand the taste of it—but when one of my fellow traders was ill I couldn’t give him a drop of brandy I because the resident agent wouldn’t let me have it.”

“ But he could get is from the dispensary,” interposed the agent. ‘‘l Know he could,”, was the replv, “but he couldn’t get it from me, Then when I went aboard a steamer with a little hag for my matches, pipe, and tobacco m niy hand, he made me open it when I came ashore to show that there wasn’t any liquor in it. And he did the same thing again when when I came ashore from a schooner. I admit that I have been insulting to him, but I’ve done that deliberately because of the way he insulted me. It isn’t as if we weren’t prepared to give him £}. chance. On the day he arrived he called a meeting in this very roop, and spoke to us asking us to assist him in securing the observance of the law. We said we would do it, and when we were talking it over afterwards we said that he was a likely young fellow, and' we would give him a fair run; and that’s the ,way he treats us—tells _ us we ought to be ashamed to go into his office, refuses to give us our liquor, though the doctor has ordered it, and makes us open our I bags before the natives.” It sounded _ pretty serious. There were four whites on the island, and every one of them was antagonistic to the resident agent by reason, it was claimed, of his tactless and autocratic manner. Then the agent’s turn to speak.came, and he spoke to some purpose hitting out_ straight from the shoulder and giving his accusers a chastising as real and thorough as was ever administered. Not one single accusation did he deny, but ho proceeded to justify himself in a manner which made his accusers squirm, and left no shadow of doubt of the justice of his attitude.- “It is true,” he began, “that at the meeting referred to by the speaker I asked for their assistance, but it is also true that I told them that a good deal of smuggling of liquor was going on, and that I would leave no stone unturned to stop that evil. In the term of my immediate predecessor the white traders, with the exception of one,_ who by reason of family troubles arising from drink had long been prohibited, were allowed to transport, liquor on the written guarantee that none would either bo sold or given to anyone else. I abolished that written guarantee, and took their word of honor for it. They gave their word, but they did not keep it. I found that they were not only giving it to the prohibited man, but were drinking all together while their supplies lasted. I also found plenty of evidence that smuggling was continuing and I gave a sharp warning about it. The Flora came in. 1 knew smuggling was going on from her, but I could not lay my hand on the smugglers. I did order the speaker who laid the complaint to open his bag, because I had already warned him that I would take every possible s’tep to keep out any liquor beyond the allowances to the traders. Later when a schooner came from Tahiti giving a very favourable opportunity for rum smuggling, I again wanted proof that no liquor was coming ashore. Then the trader I have referred to became abusive. He was violently insulting in my I was not going to stand an unlimited amount of that, or rnv authority on the island would vanish entirely, and I threatened him with the handcuffs unless he desisted. He stopped, and the matter rested at that. As tor his stout, I told him he,could have a dozen a week as soon as lie signed a written guarantee that nobody else would get any of it. Ho wrote back absolutely declining to enter into any such guarantee. In view of what had happened in the past, I declined to let him have the stout, which is still in my office, and will remain there until 1 get the guarantee.” Then one of the other traders proceeded to justify himself. “When you were acting-agent before the present agent came,” he said to one of the residents present, “ didn’t you let me got two cases of whisky at once without any trouble?” “Most decidedly not,” was the unexpected reply. “I never saw that whisky. You took it away from the steamer before it reached my office, and before I was aware of what you were going to d 6.” Another complete bowl-out. The members left that island—needless to say it was not Rarotonga—with the firm conviction that that, agent has a pretty rough row to hoe, hut that he is well up to his job.