Our Penchant for Pillage

NZ Truth, Issue 804, 9 April 1921, Page 1

Our Penchant for Pillage

It seems to be fashionable nowadays for 'the day-lie papers to make a chopping block of the New Zealand waterside worker m regard to accusations of cargo pillaging. -Judges on the bench belch forth their '-thunderbolts of wrath against the wicked "wharfie," and magistrates, m minor key, carry on the good work of blackening and vilifying the. knight of the dog-hook. And what capital the "kept press" makes of it all. and how they do love to chatter, scold and scream at the waterside plugs. But why single out the waterside .worker alone for all this vituperation? Is this body of men the only class that offends m this way? We think not. This paper does not hesitate to say that the penchant for -petty pillaging, which is an older practice than even the alleged oldest trade m the world, . permeates every strata of society to-day. What about the enormous amount of stuff that is "lost" on our railways each year?. Ask any hotel or restaurant-keeper what his annual bill is for replacing the little trifles m the way of table* silver, etc., which are gathered m by the zealous souvenir hunters amongst his customers? What of the heavy toll levied on the glassware m pubberies and marble bars? In our post offices we find the public pencils tied with a piece of string, or chained* up like a bull pup, on account of the unaccountable way they have of mysteriously disappearing if left on a loose end. The prevalence of. Jbe cult of casually snapping up unconsidered trifles can be only too easily elaborated, and it is not a case of "the higher you go the fewer," either. We know of a case of a Minister of the Crown, m days gone by, who marked his severance of the occupancy of a ministerial residence by thoughtfully taking with him a cartload of furniture, as a memento of his Illustrious past, and another who saw to it that the kitchen utensils were all renewed before "flitting." And then, when one is considering the ethics of pillaging, it is necessary to widen the scope of the inquiry to embrace the public purse. What a gorgeous debauch of petty larceny goes on here! We will only quote one instance, that of travelling allowances. We know of one New Zealand judge who religiously charges the State the exact amount of his expenses while "on the wallaby." This, be it mentioned, comes to only about half the amount the State, m its bountiful goodness allows, but the judge we quote has a -pretty sense of the'niceties m this respect and he also has a conscience. As against this how many civil servants regard it as a matter of "honor" to bleed the State for the "uttermost farthing" for "exes," when travelling? If this is not akin 1 to pillaging, what is it? v .The further we go into this subject the bigger it becomes. Instances m support of our text 6an be quoted ad infinitum. However, we will content ourselves with just one more illustration, incidentally awarding the proverbial bun for petty meanness at the same time. The scene is down at the Lyttelton terry wharf, and our tired and talkative (but hot talked out) legislators, who reside m the South Island, are making tracks for home at the end of the usual battle of blether, dignified by the name of session. The luggage of one legislator, whose constituency ia not a thousand miles from the Holy City," comes to grief. His "port-sammy" bursts open, m fact, and immediately the wharf is deluged by a cloud of sanitary paper, of the brand affected up at Parliamentary Buildings. All "Triith" will say is that when a bloke descends to pinching "humph," he has come pretty low, indeed he may .be said to have "touched bottom" as a mean thief.