CONSCIENCE MONEY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3277, 3 January 1917, Page 54

CONSCIENCE MONEY.

A SIGN OF THE TIMES. No man in his senses would say that, on the face of it, conscience money is a development of the Stone Age. Of all forms of coinage, this must be the most modern; and yet a learned scholar was heard to remark quite lately that the origin of conscience money was to be found in the r.acrificial rites of the heathen to their gods. What particular brand of heathen he did not specify; but he affirmed that the germ of it lay in the fact that if a calf about to be sacrificed was found to have a blemish, that blemish was carefully painted over so (hat it should not be noticed by the gods. This assertion sounds, prima facie, _ extremelv plausible; but the more one thinks it over the less logical does it become; for surely the action of the worshippers in trying' to hide up from the deities their own shortcomings, or, rather, the shortcomings of their offerings, is in singular opposition to the whole idea of the modern conscience seeking peace by confessing (although anonymously) to shortcomings of its offerings 'to the Exchequer. And although that is looking upon the subject in a most narrow sense, it is how nine out of 10 people will think of it. It is crystallised in their minds in some such concise form as this: "The Chancellor of the Exchequer acknowledges the receipt, of £IOO conscience money from A " and one may admire the broad and generous lines of the offering. "A" was not cursed with a petty, nagging conscience that insisted upon going into every farthing. He probably owed the Exchequer something between £IOO and £llO. "I'll send "£100," he .-ays, rather largely, to his conscience, and the latter acquiesces at once, and as often as not pats him on the back for a rather, good fellow. The Tiresome Conscience. —■ But they are not at all the same, these consciences. Some are, exact, meticulous nuisances which are a bane of their owner's lives. " You owe ihe Exchequer money," they keep dinning- into unwilling oars. " Very well." says one man, tired of bring worried by the thing. " I'll write a cheque to-day for £2O, change it into notes, and post'it to-night." '-Rut that isn't quite the right amount," the wretched conscience will persist. "It is £2l 5s 2d." " But surelv," the indignant man retorts, " if I give £2O voluntarily to the Government, that is enough. What is left will buy me a good box of cigars; and what, after all, is 25s to a wealthy country like mine?" "You owe £2l 5s 2d," reiterates the tiresome creature, and in sheer selfdefence the man gives in. It costs him endless trouble. He has to mix up fivepound notes with postal orders and twopenny stamps; but he buys temporary peace with it—" temporary," because no oae with a conscience like that would ever

rejuice in any quietude of mind. It would bo forever on the lookout for some other direction for its energies, and then come, with its annoying tweaks, to its hapless owner. it is amazing, too, t<> discover that even very rich men are sometimes burdened by consciences. One would have thought that somehow, as ther rose from pinnacle to pinnacle of riches, (hey would have managed to rid themselves of such a pestilential nuisance as a conscience. Indeed, it is commonly supposed by quite a large section of the community that the first step necessary to the attainment of wealth and fame is to devise some means of lulling inner principles to slumber. One can only conjecture that there is no drug on the market guaranteed to make that slumber permanent. There have been cases when the sleep lias lasted for many, many years, and then, of a sudden, conscience will stir uneasily and stretch itself, and gradually awaken to full strength. It is then that after a while the morning papers will print a brief acknowledgment from the Commissioners of Inland Revenue from X of £SOO on account of supertax. A cynic once remarked that- these notices represented a return of 1 per cent. The Treasury's Conscience.— A matter deserving of far more sorrowful reflection is the fact that, although the Chancellor of the Exchequer acknowledges almost daily the receipt of conscience money from erring taxpayers —no newspaper in the kingdom hajs no far ever inserted in its columns an acknowledgment by a poor taxpayer of conscience money from the Chancellor of the Exchequer. For its own sake, one can only hope and trust that an Exchequer is born without a. conscience, and as no sign of such a tiling has ever been noticed by anybody, no undue anxiety need be felt by the people of the country. Imagine for one instant the upheaval that the nation would experience at reading headlines of a daily paper such as these :—-"Government Sensation. Exchequer voluntarily refunds overpaid income tax.' r

How many lonely women breakfasting rather scantily on tea and toast would look forward with hope and joy to the addition of eggs and bacon when the conscience of the Exchequer had so far prodded it that even their humble cases had been set straight, and overcharges refunded! But such dreams are Utopian—one might almost say super-Utopian—for not even the imagination of Mr H. G. Wells has soared to such heights. Conscience and Charity.— Another kind of conscience money, and one not generally regarded as such, is that which comes under the heading of " Charitable Bequests." "Mr Money Bags, who died worth £30,000 odd, left £IOOO each to various hospitals and £SOO to each of his nephews and niece?." They art- all fornix of conscience money in disguise. Mr Money Bags was so busy accumulating his £30,000 that he had no time to look after the health and well-being of his fellow-men—and he leaves £IOOO to a big London hospital to cure or alleviate cases which might never have needed treatment if only he and other men in his position had been le?s anxious to amass money, and a little more careful of the lives "and the health of their clerks and employees. And the legacies to his nephews and nieces, lie could never spare time to learn to know them, or to enter into their hopes and ambitions —and he leaves them £SOO apiece when the money is no longer of use to him to salve his conscience for his neglect of opportunity. ■ —A Sign of Progress.—

And yet the very existence of conscience money in modern life is a hopeful, encouraging sign that we are marching towards progress in this odd, complicated civilisation' of ours. Somehow, in the depth of us, we realise that it not enough to defraud our fellow-men of what belongs to them in this world, and pray for forgiveness in eternity. In our funny primitive way we set about trying to straighten out the account while there is yet time, on this side of the Styx—and whether our endeavours take the form of bank notes to the Treasury, or donations to hospitals or endowments to rescue homes, it is all one. It is an attempt on our part to pay back to society a debt that we all owe her, and the happier the individual, the bigger the debt. There is a strange theory that happiness, like money, is not unlimited —that the more one individual absorbs, the less there is left for the rest of the community.

If this be so, surely the best return of conscience money open to all mankind is a diffusal of the joy that is in him, by his taking a cheery outlook on life generally, and inspiring his fellow-men with the feeling that happiness is there, awaiting them'on the threshold, if only they will go half-way to meet it. —The Cynic Rebuked. —■

To tho cynic, who has always thought the worst of the human race, the great war must have been a rude shock, for the time of stress and patient endurance on the part of tho whole nation revealed qualities in men and women which were believed to bo quite non-existent. Conscience was awakened on every side, urging men to acts of thoughtfuiness and consideration of which in normal times they would never have dreamt. Five thousand pounds was returned to the Exchequer in one lump sum the other day as conscience money, and never since the income tax was enforced had the Commissioners so little difficulty over returns and collection. The man who had habitually tried to get the better of the Commissioners over his return fills in every farthing, and those who had liked to feel in the old days that they were taking a riso out of the Treasury officials by keeping them waiting an unconscionable time for their money now send their cheques as soon as they" are asked for them. We are getting some idea of civic spirit, and among the many forms in which it manifests itself, conscience money, whether paid in coin or in service, looms very large.