A Businesslike King.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVII, Issue 13, 27 March 1912, Page 16

A Businesslike King.

There is one proved quality in the King’s character (says a writer in the ‘•Fortnightly”) which those of his subjects who have to take life seriously will specially know how to appreciate—his capacity for sticking steadily' to business. Neither the stir and stress of great festivities, nor the tangle and turmoil of multifarious distractions, have availed to deflect the King’s mind in the least degree from his everyday duties, or ■have induced him to drop the thread of ordinary State business. What this means can perhaps be fully understood only by those who know something of the burden and weight of public affairs. But it appeals forcibly to all thoughtful people as setting an example which, greatly needed at all times, was never more salutary than in these days, when various influences are threatening to undermine that habit of fixed, patient, concentrated attention to business which is an essential condition alike of individual success and of national prosjjerity. It is a matter of common observation that an increasing number of our business men are far more addicted than their forefathers to take their work as a disagreeable necessity, as something to be got through with a minimum of attention and interest. . . The Royal example exhibits to the nation the exact antithesis to this false ' ideal. ft serves to correct what is artificial and unreal. It is based on a conviction that work is worth doing for its own sake. It discourages the notion of a man's holding himself aloof from his business as from a thing which is a tiresome, if unfortunately necessary, adjunct to his life. The King takes his recreation like the rest of ih, “but he takes it as recreation—as a means of storing up strength for future work. He does not confuse issues by pietending that recreation is business.