NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15237, 26 February 1913, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

ARE OPPORTUNITIES

DECREASING ? The general manager of the Bank of New j South Wales (Mr. J. Russell French), looking back over 50 years' experience in banking in Australia and New Zealand, says opportunities in the business world arc not now so good as. they were in his youth. "There are so many men," ho says, " whose abilities are equal, or practically equal, and when a choice is made among them the remainder are apt to be dissatisfied and discouraged. When I joined the bank it was a comparatively small institution, and the number of men who joined at the same time was comparatively few. The result was that when the closer settlement policy and other things brought about an extreme development, there were opportunities of rapid advancement for all of us. I was in quite a responsible position at 25, but nowadays a man of that age would bo considered as just getting out of his junior stage. We have a staff of 1500 or 1600, and it is inevitable that this should be so." Mr. French referred to the appointment of a young man (Mr. Sloman) to the headmastership of the Sydney Grammar School as an exception to the general rule. " I don't think," he said, "there are many professions nowadays in which, you will find young men in responsible positions. The degree of responsibility which was given in my time to a young fellow of 25 to 30 would not ■ be given nowadays until ho was five or ■ 10 years older." WHAT PESTS MAY COST. j A statement comes from America, which I illustrates once more the extraordinary,! ravages certain insects are capable of com- »■ mitting when they are allowed to multiply j.without hindrance. Forty years ago some gipsy moths were imported from Europe ; for experimental purposes. Some of them jescaped from control, but, although the ; authorities were warned,': no action was' taken. The escaped moths increased i to I such an extent that trees were destroyed ! by them and woods were stripped /of foli- j age. v In ten years the State of Massachu- I setts spent a quarter of a million' pounds, i not dollars, in an effort to exterminate , the pests, but without success. They have I spread to other States, and now Congress > has set aside £50,000 a year for the pur- ' pose of fighting this fearsome insect. The ' ravages of'insects are explained, of course, i by their enormous powers of increase. j