Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 1879.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume 6, Issue 595, 9 January 1879, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 1879.

John Allen Mackie has been committed at Wellington to stand his trial for embezzling monies, the property of the Bank of New Zealand. Mackie was an employe of the Bank, acting as Agent, trusted with large sums of money, and invested with very great responsibility. In his position as Agent for the Bank of New Zealand, Mackie was bound to maintain an appearance which would accord m some degree with his position. He must dress reasonably well, and, as a representative of one of the largest and wealthiest nionitary establishments m the Colony, he would be expected to go into society. Now, we askj what salary did the B^-nk t 'Directors pay to a man m whoj^fcey of necessity had to place soyfuHS a responsibility? Well, MAGtfK»alary was exactly .£l5O a yoAor Wtfri shillings and nine pence ammy- Nothing near what a jouri^lnan carpenter, bricklayer, blackdpth or any ' other ordinary skilled Mechanic secures. Not so muchf-»s men m Gisborne ask for digging'fn a garden. " The result" says the Wellington Post, commenting on the subject of x the offender's innate recklessness, copibined with bad pay and that peri / — J

petual temptation which low remuneration magnifies, " is now patent m the robbery of £1310, more than eight ' years' salary. It is said that the Guarantee Association is liable for £1000. It becomes a question for such societies to consider whether or not they should take risks of the kind m cases where the payment of the guaranteed person is so utterly incommensurate with his responsibilities and his opportunities. If £150 a year is fitting pay for a bank agent, then we advise parents to make blacksmiths of their sons rather than submit them to the pangs of such a poverty-stricken gentility, such a pretentious position, such wretched pay and such permanent temptations." We well remember when some ten years ago, soon after the rush to the Marlborough goldfields, a case was tried, m which the prisoner, a bank agent at Picton was charged with stealing £3700. He was acquitted for want of sufficient legal evidence. After his release the stolen notes got into circulation, and the man for a time made a certain display of wealth, which, however, like ill-gotten riches, by-and-by disappeared, as he has lumself done since. The prisoner m this case had but a small salary, considering the responsibilities and trust necessary on goldfields ; but it was less niggardly than that of the bank agent now m. custody. But there was a young gentleman, the accountant m the same bank, who was a witness m the case, and who, as the evidence showed, had charge of the money under his immediate superior, and who was m the goldfield district paid for his work and his trust by a petty salary of £75 per annum ! There was no suspicion against this man's integrity, but the Judge on the Bench and the Press of the day severely criticised the parsimony which was then exposed. The present case is an example of the same kind. Of course we do not blame the Bank for the dishonesty of any man's nature, but we do say that pay and responsibility should go largely together. Offices of trust where large amounts of money are concerned, and a certain special education and capacity are inferred, ought surely to be paid more liberally than mere material or ordinary skilled labor, which is not coupled with any large pecuniary trust. Public sentiment, will m no wise excuse such breaches of trust, such wicked appropriation and wasteful expenditure of other people's money, but neither will it hold the Bank blameless for its paltry payment of such services. It is no palliation to say that scores of more or less educated youths or men are ready to enter the service of a bank, that the supply is greater than the demand, and that, as a consequence, the pay is low. We deny the logic. There is something more than supply and demand. Fitness is a necessary factor m the sum, and if then fitness is to be remunerates on such a scale then it is entirely m the wrong place, ancl should seek a better and a nobler, because juster, servitude.