NEW BUSINESS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 85, 16 May 1914, Page 4

NEW BUSINESS.

"VOCATION CONSULTANT." With the stress of modern life and the infinite division of labour the variety of London's business doorfilates increases rapidly. I found a otally new and mysterious one (writes a "Daily News'/, discoverer) secluded in the very midst*'of Fleet Street. Those in trouble, for example, with their teeth have no doubt —though always much hesitation —v/hen the word "Dentist" appears on the door. Tiiey know exactly what they will get inside. But what was to be found in the' place called Byron House, where a Mr Alfred Hubert had the legend on hhi door, "Vocation Consultant,' - and whose business card sViid he was a »ur.veyor .veyor and Valuer of Men? There was considerable doubt here, but there could be no hesitation whatever. What had Mr Hubert got to sell?

The expectation of romance was disappointed. There was no stuffed crocodile hanging from the ceiling, no grinning cranium on the mantelpiece, and Mr Hubert was not in the least like a wizard. From the look of the comfortable room, when one first sat at the Surveyor -*s consulting table, one expected the leading question, "And when did you iirst feel this pain?" Mr Hubert is a middle-aged student of humanity, with grey hair of some rhythm and abundance, friendly eyes, and a ruthless discourse (you pay him for the last), who appraises your capacities so that you may make you© living more direct and economic. diagnoses the results of the waste of your mental capital —this accountant of the mimV—and tells you what you can do about it.

. ."What about me?" . asked the "Daiiy News" visitor, like that happy child who played all unmindful of its doom. Mr Hubert made a careful survey—and report. (The latter is too paini'ui for publication.)

Mr Hubert's part hi modern'business is not at" all mystical. He i,s a practical psychologist who, to be brief, advises on the choice of a career; how to invest your personal capital. He is kindly, but not with a mother"s.undiscriminating affection. He betrayed the remarkable fact that lie is called in to aid important business houses when they have doubts about their assistants. Perhaps a promotion lias to be made and Mr Hubert is called in to precipitate doubts about the choice, as a specialist in human nature. The mural decorations of his oflice are not puzzling charts, but the portraits of eminent clients.