This is because in perl when a method is called the calling thing (be it the class name or object) is passed in as the first argument e.g

sub func { print "first arg: $_[0]\n" }

my $o = bless [];

main->func();
  $o->func();

__output__

first arg: main
first arg: main=ARRAY(0x80fbb0c)
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So in the first case the string main is being passed in as that's what the method was called on, and in the second case the object $o. With that in mind you're test() method should look something like this

sub test{
  my( $self, $name ) = @_;
  return $name;
}
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See. perltoot for more information on methods.
HTH

_________
broquaint