SANCTIMONIOUS SMITH.

NZ Truth, Issue 97, 27 April 1907, Page 4

SANCTIMONIOUS SMITH.

A GREEDY, GRASPING,

GROCER.

How He Treated His Tenants

Who Patronised Opposition Shows.

The chief worry of most people m Wellington is that mercenary, mcn-ey-mongering mammal, the landlord, whose repacious demands have to be satiated every Monday morning otherwise there will be hell to play. The landlord is top-dog m this rain and wiud swept city of ours, and most of him seem to have been badly bitten by the bug of boodle. So.keen, so heartless, so inhuman is he m the chase for the "Almighty dollar," that the feelings of comfort and convenience of his tenants is not even a secondary consideration with him, and his only trouble like Tom Moore's landlady is "I want me rent," and if that isn't on hand at Schedule time the tenant will know of It. Landlordism m Wellington is no doubt a fina paying game and as everybody cannot lay claim to' the Possession of a terrace or two, it is only a privileged few who are waxing jolly and fat and piling up a substantial credit at the bank. Moreover, it is a remarkable fact that RELIGION AND LANDLORDISM seem to go hand m- hand here, andthe more religions a landlord professes to be the. more keen is he m; the accumulation of worldly goods and the more heartless and inhuman is he m dealing ( with those unfortunate enough to 'be m his debt or who are m any other way beholden to. him. From such red-hot religious ranters Go od Lord deliver us all. He is ten times worse than the Hebraic usurer. Suoh as he knows no mercy, and therefore gives none. They worship both God and Mammon and as man oantiot serve two masters, God has to take a back seat, and Mammon reiens supreme. It is m this class that "Truth" takes great pleasure m placing one Allen Smith, a Newtown and city who owns considerable property at Newtown, who is, or was a shining light m that peculiar brand of religious ranters known as the Plymouth Brethren, whose manner of dealing with tenants is curious, if not at variance with the divine precept of doing by others as he would that others would do by him. Up till a few months 'back, Smith as a grocer had things all his own way ;-■• there was no opposition and therefore Smith was happy. However, acdordto the man of the Lord he had nursed a viper, m the shape of. an assistant, who, saw an opening m the grocery line and a short time' ago took advantage of it and the consequence was that the young fellow, who took another into partnership with Mm-, opened a business m Daniel-street and a lot of Smith's," old customers for reasons, best known to. themselves, transferred their affections from the old love to the new to the detriment of the former, and, pf course, to the advantage and profit of * the* latter. Then the OILY AND UNCTUOUS PURITAN showed his true nobility of character by. cruelly slandering the successful youmg assistant, who of course could afford to smile at Smith's dirty and blackguardly insults. Now, as a lot of ' Smith's customers were. also his tenants and. as some, not all,• of themv had transferred their , grocery! alletgiance from their landlord to the opposition show,. Smith determined to.'•"/set even and hit on the yery happy expedient of practically compelling them to deal from him, whether they patronised the successful • oung man or any •ther grocer, under the dread pain and penalty of hems; kicked out of his house, and all the' tenants who stood on their dignity and refused point blank to be dictated' to as to where they should bestow their patronage gob notice to quit. In one case the notice was not' Worth the; paper it was written on and the tenant took advantage of it and told the grocer—Plymouth > Brethren bloke that she would not go out until she got a proper notice, whereupon the holy man of God, 'threatened to raise the rent and m this he 'was again defied and told to do has worst. What Smith wanted m his . cottages . were ' his "friends," i.e. those who would give their grocery custom to him and the threat has been made to all the tenants that their turn would come as soon as he got "friends"' enough to take houses, and consequently mast of the tenants, ithose who will not deal m Smith's! 'groceries, are wait 1 inK to get the dirty kick out. Smith, is not like most Wellington landlords. Most of that fortunate class are so independent, m these good old boom times, that they practically decline.to let their houses to tenants With young, families. Smith is not of that sort. He is not one that regards children as a nations best asset, he looks on them as a valuable asset to Smith, because young stomachs have to be filled and Smith undertakes to fill them at the customary prevailing rates. Of course, Smith is at perfect liberty to do just as he pleases with his own property, and it is within, his right to bolsteir up A DECLINING GROCERY BUSINESS. on the lines that have been. explained, but it 1 so happens that this rich landlord is a religious hypocrite, and a scandal-monger who for his vile utterances concerning the young man who opened m opposition to him should be dragged to court and penalised for a cruel defamation of character. Smith can no doubt conduct his business as he likes ; he can turn his tenants out at his own sweet will, but the fact cannot be lost sight of that m turning tenants out he is putting them to great inconvenience and discomfort; because to obtain a house anywhere m Wellington is a difficulty known -to pretty well everyone who has been out house-hunting. Mr. Allen Smith is one of those religious humbugs, whose God is gold, and m the amassing of wealth, the comfort and convenience of anybody else is never thought of. Smitih; the grocer, seems to be a cute kind of cuss and his attempt fey such ' means to get even on those who will not buy of him deserve the publicity it is here given.