Round THE Corners

New Zealand Mail, Issue 772, 17 December 1886, Page 17

Round THE Corners

When individuals of the common weal so emphatically repudiate responsibility in connection with the conservation of public morality, apprehension of lukewarmness in the cause on the part of the Government may well be excited. For a high standard of morality is essential to the well-being of the people, and the people know this very well, yet in the perverseness of their nature they ignore it for the sake of material gain. And if the people will not move a finger to put down whited sepulchre vice, why should not the Govern ment, which is made out of the people, take a lenient view of that which the people themselves so comfortably tolerate. Very possibly Government supporters tolerate such things, and it would not do to ruffle the complacency of supporters by indirectly taxing them with “holding a candle to thedevil.” And then so much is made of “ public scandal.” Thus the argument: This business must be hushed up ; better not to make much of it, ’twill raise such a scandal ! far better to square the thing and have done with it. There have been several instances of this squaring business during the last twelve months. It stands next to that compounding with creditors which is rapidly usurping the functions of downright bankruptcy. Bothi are highly unsatisfactory, for the compounding is seldom made good, and “ squaring ” is tantamount to offering a premium for the perpetration of well-concealed swindling. Indeed, both tend to that end, for how many compositions have occurred that were based on the mo3t shameless fraud. At first sight it seems strange that people can do such things, and afterwards walk about with head erect, patterns' quite of high standard virtue. And yet it is not strange, for there are natures so perverted as to be incapable of clearly distinguishing between right and wrong. And herein lies the difference between high and low principle, between conscientiousness and turpitude, between the man of honor and the knave. They who study history know how knaves have bsen in the past, and held their heads high ; but still honor, on the whole, prevailed. There was more honorable consideration than knavish scheming. lam dealing only with the history of oar own race. And in the present day there is much honorable c msideration afloat; but its growth is terribly hampered by tares. The force of pernicious example, of dishonor triumphing, tails against it saflly. For the average human character is unconsciously moulded by the stronger minds with whom it comes into contact. And it is only people of strong minds who succeed in roguery. They have sufficient determination to do evil, and their example is contagious to a degree.

When an age is essentially commercial, when the race for wealth is unceasing, when expediency holds sway and the doctrine of ends justifying means is openly entertained, when high principle is used as litter for the golden calf, and wealth and wealth only, v is the pass word, then may the people, among whom such things prevail, try to seriously consider whereunto they are drifting. For dead principle putrifies horribly, and the contagion is inconceivably powerful, tainting far and wide, and involving all whom it touches in the whirl of corruption. What must be the effect of successful rascality—of unpunished villainy—be upon the young ? This is just what Governments have to consider, who are really desirous of fostering high principle in the State. Surely if rascality is unchecked the young will fall into its ways, and if our boys develop rascality, what about the girls ? And then, what of the nation ? And who dare say there is not a tendency in this most undesirable direction now, and, what is more, an increasing tendency. Woe, woe to that people whose laws are so framed as to wink at any kind of wickedness! They must degenerate. For the fundamental principle underlying all law should be the promotion of all that is good, the suppression of all that is evil. But the law does not compass this. For law is inert, lethargic, requires to be stimulated to do that which is right. Go to any emissary of the law and ask him why action is not taken to bring a certain class of criminals to justice, and he will tell you

the law has no power to act. The people* the laity, must first move in the matter. It is not enough for the people to tell the law such and such an offence has been-committed. ’ They must be prepared to become the law’s emissaries themselves, and readyto take the law into their own hands and make the best of it. , Now this is altogether wrong, the law should be ready to investigate on the slightest provocation, and compel evidence to support its action. It hears that Tern, Dick and Harry have committed a felony in a certain direction, have done a nice little bit of embezzlement, and that the directory is prepared to pass it over providing a sufficient solatium is forthcoming. The law should instantly slip in and seize Tom, Dick and Harry, and directory also, and enforce retribution whether they wished it or not. Nothing of the kind ought to be optional in a well-ordered State.

No wonder successive Governments shrink from attempting Civil Service Reform. A reform (Civil) of any kind has only to be hinted at to evoke a storm of indignant protestation. • Evidently an effort is to be made to assimilate the . time of Civil Service with’ ordinary, commercial time, and a very proper effort, too,.for that isXexactly a direction the earlier, efforts of Cjvil Service Reform should take- For until the work of;.thfi State—the public service work —is condnetetfcvpn ; the strict lines which characterise commercial business, the public will never be brought to believe in the extinction of the “ an extinction which has, at last, becomie- imperative. Why should not Civil servants work from 0 a.m. till 5 p.m., the same as the of- leading and other mercantile firms? And' ech'o-.answers “ Why, indeed.”

It is the spigot that leaks as a rule and. notv. ' the bung. And the administrators of public affairs recognised this when they superseded brown Windsor with plain yellow soap in the Government Building. It was a small matter, but still, if retrenchment is to be practised, ’tis a lot of small matters that want looking to first. There is, however, one large one that Ministers oueht to take into immediate consideration. . The trained sea (or army) officer is always supposed to lead his men. In emergencies the post of danger and personal suffering are pre-eminently his. And so in affairs of another kind. If a business is not prospering, : and economising becomes unavoidable, ’tis the head of the firm that should set example of ■' self-abnegation to his employes, and if he finds it imperative to reduce their allowances teh’per cent, he ought to lead off by reducing his own twenty per cent, first, and put a lot of unnecessary luxuries behind him at the same time. And so with the Civil Service. Let us devoutly hope that many poor devils who can barely exist now will be reduced as lightly as practicable, and thatthe main reductions will be made where they can be best afforded. Ministers will do well to begin with their own salaries first, and then run the gamut down through the higher “screws.” Retrenchment can’t be avoided now. At last we have come to that pass—a pass that “ The Major ” predicted and tried to provide for, albeit clumsily, and at once became the best-abused man in the Colony. And now the one care must be to retrench wisely as well as thoroughly, to fairly apportion the burden that hasto be borne. It is being done in a good many directions outside the public service.

Who ever heard of returned diggers giving a good name to the goldfield they had just left in disgust. ’Twould be very singular indeed if they had anything but abuse to heap on it. And : twas ever so in connection with goldfields. The best the world ever saw were duffers at first, and it was quite the rule, when a new field was opened, foe two streams of diggers to ’ pass each other daily—those going to the field, full of bright anticipation, and those coming from it with their swags full of despondency and disappointment. And yet the field proved first-class in the long run. It/ was enough to the men of real grit for gold to be there, and hey stuck to the trail like staunch hounds, and frequently followed it to fortune. Kimberley may turn out yet, spite of its dreadful bad beginning,' and as for “ Teetulpa,” in . South Australia, the future of that district as a gold-producer is, I should say, tolerably assured.

When such very serious differences of opinion exist between Supreme Court judges, as was exhibited last week at the Supreme Courts at Napier and Invercargill, when the Chief Justice and Judge Williams took diametrically opposite sides on precisely similar issues, one ' may be excused for dispairing of the cause of justice and right. There were two cases of letter-stealing, both bad. The one heard by the Chief Justice was of seven charges of stealing letters, the one that Judge Williams ; heard was of four charges. The Chief Justice considered that the case before him was of a nature to come within the new Probationers Act. Judge Williams on the other hand sternly insisted on not giving a man license to sin because of previous good character, and so put him out of the way for a couple of years. The Chief Justice merely placed his man under police surveillance for two years to find sureties to come up for judgment when called on. It is remarkable that both men had previous good characters, and yet how the doctors differed ! Is it well that so n uch variation should be provided for in the administration of the law. For where so much discretionary power is given to judges, it will not be the law that is held in dread, but the judge who is least leniently inclined. The Probationers Act was a merciful dispensation of last session of Parliament, but it promises to prove an utter failure. Clearly it would be a gross miscarriage of justice to acquit one man who had committed murder, and at the same time hang another for wantonly taking the life of a fellow-creature, both having borne excellent characters in the past, and each having killed without provocation. The Probationers Act had better be looked into next session.

Asmodeus.