THE MORALS OF TRADE AND THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 7006, 1 May 1884, Page 3

THE MORALS OF TRADE AND THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

TO THE EDITOK. . Sib, —The great ovil of the day is over*, trading, and converting business into speonlative gambling. Speaking broadly, the tendency is for traders to hypothecate tbe capital of other traders as well as their own. This brings the eubject before us, Why is it that the morals of trade are so bad I Wky, after the careful inculcation of reoti-. tude during education, oomes there in after life so much knavery ? It results from the indiscriminate respect paid to wealth, for ae things are, we have no idea of what a man, ought to be, and are too often guided by mean principles. We respeot ability, money, rank—bnt character as if it had no existence. People like to be somebody ; to make a name, a position, and to aocnmulate wealth in the surest and easiest way of fulfilling this ambition; and so long as imposing worthli-ssness gets .there visible means of respect and sooial opinion, so long ■will- this evil last. Only those wha have -departed from the beaten traok of rectitude know what a powerful curb to men is the open disapproval of their fellows, and how, conversely, the outward applause of their fellows is a .stimulus surpassing all others in intensity. These considemtiona have arisen from the perusal of the resolßtions passed at the last meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, viz., that for the future candidates for- membership will be. expected to bring some guarantee as to their antecedents. This is a step in the right direction, and something needs to.be done now in the way of a protest against adora* tion of mere success. Society can only be made better by a sterner criticism of the means through which that success has been achieved, and by according honour or a new order of merit (say the Zealandia Gross) to thoee like the Hamilton trader, who after three years 01 industry invited his creditors to dinner, and paid hie debts in full. This is an example of honesty that men under similar conditions should emulate.—l am, *9-i ' .Sobutatob.