Another Public Subscription.

Observer, Volume XV, Issue 821, 22 September 1894, Page 2

Another Public Subscription.

Thk movement on foot to present Mr P. A. Philips with a bag of sovereigns, as a reward for his services to the public of Auckland in the capacity of Town Clerk during the last twenty-five years, is one of the most barefaced impositions upon the good nature of a long-suffering public that has come under my observation. Ten years ago, a presentation was made to Mr Philips in recognition of his fifteen years' service, and probably, by-and-bye, another will be set on foot to mark the completion of his thirty years' service. But it would be interesting to know in what way Mr Philips has distinguished himself above all the other Corporation employees that he alone should be singled out for these special marks of favour. Aye, and more than that, is there one sound or sensible reason in the world why a community should be taxed from time to time to furnish subsidies for officials already in comfortable billets and drawing fat salaries ?

* It will occur to most people who are asked to give a pound or two to this fund that Mr P. A. Philips has been exceptionally well off during the last twenty-five years. He has had constant employment at a good salary, sometimes as high as £500 and sometimes as low as £350, but at present stationary at £400 per annum. Eight pounds per week ! It may seem a poor return to Mr Philips for his invaluable services, but there are very few business men indeed in Auckland who can honestly say that they have made £8 per week during the last five or six years. Alas, many of them know to their cost that the balance in their books has been on the wrong side of the ledger, and not a few of them would be glad to be as well off to-day as they were five years ago. And yet these people are to be asked by an influential deputation of business men, whom they cannot refuse if they are politic, to put their hands in their pockets and give a pound or a couple of pounds each towards a bag of sovereigns for Mr P. A. Philips, a gentleman whose lines are cast in easy places, and who gets his .€4OO per annum without deductions. The whole proceeding is highly improper.

It is not by any means an agreeable matter to oppose a movement of this kind, and especially in a community which is largely rnn on the principle of ' you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours,' but I have received forcible and indignant letters on the subject, and I feel it to be my duty to venture a word or two by way of mild protest. If this were a matter for the relief of distress or for the assistance of anyone in need of help, the movement would have the aid of my pen and sovereign. But it is not. There are few people in Auckland, just now, in receipt of better incomes than that of Mr Philips ; tradesmen are crying out loudly about bad times, and yet they gladly give what assistance they can to the cause of charity; while workmen in hundreds are walking our streets idle — heartsick because they cannot get the chance of earning the few shillings that would keep their families from starvation. And yet, in the face of all this poverty and distress, it is proposed to give Mr Philips a bag of sovereigns with which to supplement his already comfortable salary. What shameless effrontery !