The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1907 ABOLISHING THE CREDIT SYSTEM.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2072, 26 December 1907, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1907 ABOLISHING THE CREDIT SYSTEM.

The bakers of Gieborno have decided to attempt .what has hitherto been looked upon ms an impossible task, and from January 1, 1908, there will he .no such word as “tick” in the vocabulary of a local baker. The intention is to supply consumers with bread at the lowest possible price, but to insist in every instance upon payment being made at the time of delivery. If it can be carried out there seems little reason to doubt that the result will prove beneficial to the majority of users, for as they are frankly reminded by the bakers, they are compelled' at present to pay a. higher price than would otherwise be charged, in order to make up for the bad debts consequent upon tlie credit system. No one will doubt the great advantage such a system will confer upon tlie vendor of bread. Instead of burdening liis ledgers with hundreds of accounts and suffering no end' of anxiety becauso of the difficulty in “getting his money in,” lie will simply keep a cash book and enter therein tlie casli receipts from day to day. All this is so charmingly simple that the average tradesman, finding his business transacted on such a basis, would be inclined to pinch himself to make sure that he was really awake, and that the abolition of* ■th© (booking system was not merely a. dream. There are difficulties ill the way of inaugurating such a system, and one of the most apparent is that of the housewife who never has less than a. “five pound note” in the house, or whose husband has inadvertently left her without “change.” For the benefit of households where these conditions are prevalent the bakers will issue coupons, by which a. reserve of tickets worth 3id each can be kept in the house. Thus if a dozen of these are purchased the housewife is free for_a time at least front the dreadful possibility of finding the inexorable baker pass her door because she happens to be minus tke useful coppers necessary to pay for a loaf. Then again there is the household where it is a rule of life never to pay an account until it is absolutely necessary, where the butchers and bakers and other tradesmen are kept waiting for their money, in order that the lady members of the home may be decked out resplendent for races and social functions, and that the men may “maintain their position” amongst their fellows. To such as these the tradesman dare not refuse credit for fear ho should lose their custom, and this class of the community give the bakers probably as much anxiety as any other. Another section are those whose revenue would by economical management be quite sufficient - to make both ends meet, but in various extravagant- ways Hie money goes, and there is none left for the baker. This ho finds out when an account has been run up. His demands ftir payment are met by -doles-.which -are not sufficient even to keep the current account from-becoming larger. Here again lie fears that to stop supplies would simply mean to lose entirely the old-debt- ami transfer the customer’s fututro casli to another tradesman, and so he keeps supplying in the vain hope that the debt will one day be squared. Such eases as these are very properly dealt with bj' tlie new scheme of the bakers. The so-called aristocratic individual who has been wont to domineer over the tradesman will find it impossible to maintain such an -attitude under the new conditions, whilst tlie illmanaged household will find it compulsory to adopt -a satisfactory system for the securing of a regular supply of at least one important article of diet. Up to this point the scheme is a good one, for there can be no doubt that in many of its features the credit system- is not only unsatisfactory to tradespeople, but has a demoralising effect on the community, tending to an encouragement of shiftlessness amongst certain classes. There -is, -however, another side to the case which- it would seem must inevitably be considered by the bakers at some time. Let us take the case of a- workman- with a large family earning the current wages of 7s to 8s a day. When the present- high cost of living is considered and broken time is taken into account, it will •be recognised that it is virtually impossible for him to put money ibv for a rainy day. He meets with ail accident or is stricken down by. illness. Is the family of such a man who has

paid Jus broad bill- •'regularly every month for years to (be fateedi with starvation or an appeal to the mercies -of the Charitable Aid Board 1 ? Possibly a- week or a fortnight’s •graco,. whilst some extraordinary measures his family are taking become operative, away be all the assistance he needs, but his baker dare not; give it under tlie new agreement. Such am instance is suggested to show that there -may bo many cases of real hardship resultant from an endeavor to carry out such an arbitrary rule as that just adopted. There is no question tlia.fi the system of credit is-particularly abusedi in this town, and tli© bakers have acted wisely in -attempting to protect-them-selves, but wo cannot- help thinking .blunt to carry out their -present scheme in its entirety will, be going a step too far. After -all, the -world of commerce is built up on credit. The baker himself gets credit from the miller, the miller from the -merchant, the merchant from the bank, and the -bank from other banks, andl in every instance there is the risk of bad debts to be faced. This risk can -always he minimised by careful discrimination, and whero various tradespeople combine it should bo reduced to a minimum', but to arbitrarily ' and- completely do away with the -practice of giving credit is a task that we imagine, will -prove to be beyond- tlie power of the bakers of Gisborne. There is, however, no reason why the present- scheme should not ho made the -means of placing tlie general conditions of the trade on a much more satisfactory basis than they occupy at the present time.