BOOK CANVASSING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8535, 8 April 1891, Page 6

BOOK CANVASSING.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, —A recent issue of the Herald contains a notice of a decision given at Christchurch in favour of claims bv the proprietors of the Australasian Picturesque Atlas against several persons who were alleged to have promised subscriptions. The magistrate is there reported as having remarked that it was ridiculous to suppose that a number of men accustomed to business would put their names to blanks. The Australasian Picturesque Atlas is one of the prominent scandals of our time. The methods adopted by the canv&ssers are a mixture of flattery and bullying. They have intruded themselves upon me twice, and on both occasions I had the greatest difficulty in getting rid of them. The tale told on the second occasion was absolutely opposed to that of the first. Their last visit was in January, 1890, and I am quite prepared to affirm in a Court of law if necessary, that all that they asked me for was a subscription for those parts of the Atlas which referred to New Zealand. I found out afterwards that they had made a tour of the neighbourhood, saying different things at different places. At the house of one of my neighbours, where they were hospitably entertained at lunch, no request was made to take a book at all; their entertainer's signature was obtained to a declaration that it would be an advantage to the colony if some pictures, which the visitors showed, were placed in the Dimedin Exhibition then about to be opened. The signature was placed as one of a column on a sheet of foolscap, the signature at the top being that of one of Auckland's most eminent citizens. There was no space between this signature and the one immediately preceding it in the column. Some months after an agent appeared with fourteen numbers of the Atlas. Demur was made to accepting them, and a slip was produced containing an order for the whole work with the householder's signature at the bottom. How this signature travelled from the column on the foolscap into its lonely dignity on the slip is an interesting question which requires an answer. The people who have been dealt with are of all classes. I know of one assistant teacher in a country school with a small salary who understood the liability to be a matter of five shillings. Is it likely that such an one would sign an order for any ornamental work costing ten guineas —I am, &c., W. adman Aldis. March 14, 1891.