A REVOLUTIONARY PROPOSAL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1513, 22 March 1887, Page 3

A REVOLUTIONARY PROPOSAL

Among the pro jets de loi which it is announced that Ministers intend to submit at the approaching session of the General Assembly, there is one of a most radical and revolutionary character m the sense that it proposes to turn business arrangements upside down by tearing the credit system up by the roots. We refer of course to the measure which we are informed by our telegrams is to be introduced by the Colonial Secretary (Hon Mr Buckley), and which will provide " that tradesmen's accounts for goods sold and delivered to a less value than cannot be recovered m a Resident Magistrate's Court " We should have thought that the Government had their hands full enough m connection with the pressing affairs, financial and other, of the colony to have induced them to abstain frcm what we may term fancy legislation, and are of opinion that the large subjects of representation, taxation, and land settlement, which must necessarily be discussed, will take up so great a share of the attention of Parliament, that members will have no time to spare to discuss such proposals as those of the Bill m question, and that the latter will be accorded a very short shrift. We are told that the reason the Bill is to be brought forward is because "the Government consider that Magistrates' Courts throughout the colony are being used simply as machinery for collecting debts." They have had a return prepared, it seems, from which they find that " the number of summonses issued m the colony by Magistrates' Courts last year for sums under -£20 was 20,380 j for sums ranging from £zo to 2325 ; and for sums ranging from upwards, 674 ;" and they calculate that "should the Bill become law a great saving will be made m working these Courts." We certainly fail to see how the facts disclosed justify the conclusion arrived at ; indeed, they appear to us to prove the exact contrary. For the fees of Court m connection with the 20,000 odd small debt cases must have represented a very large proportion of last year's revenue, and must have gone a long way towards paying the whole cost of the machinery of the Resident Magistrates' Courts, Jnstead, therefore, of a saving there would, we fancy, be a very considerable loss if the jurisdiction were limited to causes m which a larger sum than was at stake. As to the objection that the Court is used simply as a machinery for collecting debts, surely one of the main reasons for its existence is to give people the opportunity of recovering moneys due to them, actions for torts, that is to say, " wrongs," being very few m comparison. Again, if the " big" man is still to be allowed to sue for the or more due to him, why should not the "little " man be able to sue for the 50s, which m his case wy be ot more moment to him thani* the larger sum to his wealthier neighbor ? If it be said m reply that the credit system is too universal, and that half the ills of business men arise from this cause, we entirely concur, but we say further that, admitting all that, it would never do to put a stop to it m the summary way proposed by Act of Parliament, It would simply mean ruin to thousands of small tradesmen, and would be, besides, productive of widespread inconvenience, and even hardship. The evils of the credit system must be left to work out their own cure, and the process can be hastened by educating the people as to the benefit ol buying for cash. It is easily shown that credit has to be paid for, and that he only buys to the best advantage who buys for ready money. But, even if people be ever so fully convinced of this, circumstances will often render it impossible for them to act on ready money principles, for the simple reason that even where the money is ultimately absolutely certain it is not always presently available. Hence, credit will always be wanted, and unless Mr Buckley gets his way it will always be given. We. do not think that there is the smallest chance of its being interfered with by any such drastic measure as that proposed, and cannot even imagine that the Colonial Secretary himself for a moment dreams that it will be. Why then should the time of Parliament be taken up m discussing so Quixotic and Utopian a proposal, and what are the other members of the Cabinet about m allowing their colleague to bring forward so impracticable and ill-judged a measure.