The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. TUESDAY, JULY 9, 1895. NO CREDIT.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 8, 9 July 1895, Page 2

The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. TUESDAY, JULY 9, 1895. NO CREDIT.

In order to afford more legal protection to tradespeople against the unthrifty and the careless in money matters, the Hon. MrSeddon has prepared a Bill entitled "An Act for Limitation of Actions for Debt, and to prohibit actions for small debts for goods sold and delivered." It is provided that : The period within which must be commenced and sued all actions for debt grounded upon any lending or contract without specialty is hereby limited as follows : — (1) To two years after the cause of iiction arose ; (*2) In all other cases to two years after the commence ment of this Act, but not exceeding six years after the cause of action arose ; (3) .Notwithstanding any tiling contained in the- Act or elsewhere to the contrary, it shall not be lawful to commence or maintain any action or to recover in any court any money debt, or demand, in respect of goods sold and delivered after the commencment of this Act unless the price of the goods exceeds twenty pounds. I\o doubt the f miner of the Bill has the welfare of the poor and needy at heart, but the simple truth is that if this Bill becomes law the credit system, as far as it relates lv the wage earning class, will have to be abolished. It is not liktly that tradesmen, storekeepers, and other distributors will part witli their goods when they know thoy have no legal remedy to recover their value. The Act provides that £20 may bo recovered. That means the grocer, the butcher, and the baker would have to make a contract with each customer to take £20 worth of wares before such customer became, in the eyes of the law, a legal debtor. Very few tradesmen — unless working witli a very large capital — could do that kind of business. We quite agree with the principle of shortening the term of the Limitation Act, which allows six years ; but the notion of interfering in such a drastic manner with the existing relations between distributors and consumers is repellant. Who does not know of hundreds of ca?es, both in town and country, where, had it not been for the tradespeople giving credit to persons in receipt of small wages, and even to others out of work altogether, there would have been a terrible augmentation to the ranks of those demanding help from the Charitable Aid Boards and kindred societies ? That the credit system has been grossly abused, no one who has had business experience can deny, but we hold that the people who " could not if they would " get any tradesman to trust them to the extent of twenty pounds are not the. ones chielly to blame ; it is the " big fish " who do the damage. It is an open question as to who will suffer most if this Bill becomes law — the distributor or the consumer.