PATER’S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3613, 12 June 1923, Page 67

PATER’S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

DO IT NOW. If you’ve found a task worth, doing, Do it now! In delay there’s danger brewing, Do it now! Don’t you be a “bv-and-byer,” And a sluggish patience tryer; If there’s aught you would acquire, Do it now ! If you’d earn a prize worth owning, Do it now ! Stop all waiting and postponing, Do it now! Say ' I will!” and then stick to it, Choose your purpose and pursue it, There’s but one right way to do it, Do it now 1 All we have is just this minute, Do it now ! Find your duty and begin it, Do it now ! Surely you’re not always going To be ‘‘a going to be,” and knowing You must some time make a showing, Do it now - ! ***** THE “OLD, OLD SONG.” When all the world is young, lad, When ail the trees are green; And every goose a swan, lad, And every lass a queen ; Then liey for boot and horse, lad, And round the world away; Young blood must have its course, lad,, And every dog his day. When all the world is old, lad, And all the trees are brown • And all the sport is stale, lad, And all the wheels nun down ; Creep home, and take your place there, The spent and maim'd among; God grant you find one face there You loved when all was young. C. Kingsley. ***** LEARNING TO READ. In the late Sir William Robertson Nicoll’s essay on the above subject you will find an illuminating passage which applies to the genuine book-lover of all ages. It reads: You ought to have three kinds of books. There is a verse in one of the Psalms: “Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into the darkness.” “Lover, friend, acquaintance.” Your individuality is the centre, round it and near it is the little circle of love—those who are your nearest and dearest. Round that is a larger concentric circle of friends, and then round that a very large circle of acquaintances. I say the same thing about books. Certain books you love, and they are the special books, tha books you want to read every year, tho books you would not be without, tho books which you bind in morocco, the books you would keep at all costs. Find the books that you love, and then, find your friends among books. • - * * * HOW JOHN BULL KEEPS HOUSE. If Great Britain be considered a residential club on a large scale (says a writer in a Home paper), the very complex machinery of the nation’s finance nxay, perhaps, become clearer, Naturally the members must pay for running it, and those with the best rooms are made to pay the highest subscriptions. The club has its Life President, and in a great crisis a few hundred years ago it was decided that he could not fix or demand subscriptions without the consent of the elected General Committee. Another important rule is that, if the members’ subscriptions in any year exceed the cost of running the club, the excess automatically goes to reduce debt (for the club is always in debt) unless the Committee, which, of course, is the House of Commons, decides otherwise. There is a small Executive Committee to run the club, and the General Committee draws cheques to it on account —these are the Consolidated Fund Bills. The officials are responsible to the General Committee for what they have received, and their accounts are passed in the Appropriation Act. The permanent taxes may, perhaps, be regarded like banker’s’ orders, automatically transferring money from the members' accounts to the club’s—except that, unlike bankers’ orders, they cannot be revoked by a dissatisfied member. The annual ones —income tax and tea duty—are imposed every year by tho General Committee, and, since they are indispensable, that ensures that the Committee meets every year. The machinery is the growth of centuries, and it runs so smoothly that the rejection of Mr Lloyd George’s Budget by the House of Lords fourteen years ago hardly caused it to quiver. The Inland Revenue Department gathers money 7 at a percentage of cost which is the amazement of other countries. And if the taxpayer cannot mould tho machine to everv passing desirt, any real effort of his will give him absolute control over it. The burden on both machine and the taxpayer has increased eightfold since ear William Harcourt’s Budget of 1894. Yet there is probably 7 less evasion. The ideal is a cheerful payment of income tax as a reasonable club subscription. At the present figure that can hardly bo, but the cheque is drawn with resignation, for the need of paying for the security brought about by the war is obvious. The justice of our system may be broad and rough, but it is there, and the taxpayer has the consolation of knowing that lie and his fellows are all ground down in their own mills with ruthless impartiality.