THE CREDIT SYSTEM

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2079, 3 January 1908, Page 2

THE CREDIT SYSTEM

INTERVIEW AVITH PROMINENT BUSINESS MAN. TOO MUCH CREDIT IN THE PAST ACTION BY TRADERS URGED. A local business mail, in a large way in Gisborne, expressed his views as follows ill regard to the credit system, when interviewed on the subject by a “Times” reporter:— “Respecting the credit system,” he commenced, “I think that the sooner it is abolished tlie better. Tlie cash system is better for the business people and the public generally. In Gisborne at the present time, and for many years past, in the grocery and other lines, people have been given unlimited credit, and this system is very bad, both for the retailer and tho individual. It is a mistaken idea for people to think that a person who was living from hand to mouth could get credit, and people should have been educated to pay cash. To spea’k of tho ordinary purchaser, that is, tho man drawing, a weekly wage, if that individual falls ill and cannot pay for one week’s supplies, how can he pay for four? That is how the question is to be looked at, and yet ho asks for credit. It is not- thought, of course, that because a man ear.not pay for his necessaries of life at a certain moment, that he must necessarily starve. If ho is known to his dealer, lie should, certainly bo treated leniently, but a storekeeper cannot givo credit where the man is not known. A great many people come to urn .and ask for credit for a month —neople I do not know—and to grant this request would bo a ruinous principle. It is not business, and it merely becomes a bad debt. Tho sooner the retailers take up tho cash system the better it will be for all concerned. AVlioso fault is it? “Tho traders?” “Exactly. It is tho fault of the storekeepers, and they have got themselves to blame, and people are encouragd to live beyond their means. Any amount of peoplo are doing this. This should not bo so. People get into a careless way, and this method of doing business should bo stopped. All this booking has to bo gone through at night, and it entails endless woi'k with books and ledgers to’clerks, and sending out accounts so often, and then the accounts are ignored.’ “D-• vou believe that this innovation will eventually take place?” was asked. , . ~ “Yes,” was tlie reply. I believe it will come, for this reason : As this place grows and population increases the ctorekeepers must join together in refusing to give credit to Dick, Tom, and Harry. The storekeepers are the losers.” “AYby should not people pay for the necessaries of life in New Zealand. I here is no reason why any person should bo in debt; they \aro receiving good salaries. I repeat, people are Jiving beyond their means. There is r.o difference in school from the working man’s child and the child brought up in luxury, and they cxnoct the same things always, and lire well dressed as their masters. Titov go to the Opera, and even those out "at ..on ice are in the dress circle. There is nothing of that at Home. There tliev keep to their own class, hut here i’::v arc ipeing and trying, to apnea." wlnit they are not. They liar.’in pay for their luxuries. They wear expensive articles of clothing, but tlicv will not find cash for anything they can help, and they quite overstep the mark.” “Certainly,” lie continued, “it is a Imd principle to get into debt, and for two re isons: it is easy to enter imo it and another thing to pay it. The credit system leads people astray ; they say thoughtlessly, ‘Oh yes, go and get so-and-so, and book it.’ This is a great mistake, and it lias boon the ruin of many people who could not very well meet their bills, who-have beeii honest and respective —and tho man who does not pay his way is not honest—and the time has arrived when people should'be educated to paying cash for their goods. Years ago people would have been insulted had they been offered change, but tilings are different now. Tlie shopkeepers are, as I have said, to blame for the extent of the trouble, because they are too keen and run round canvassing for orders indiscriminately, insisting oil people buying tilings oil ‘tick.’ 1 think it is a mistake forcing goods on peoplo. They wirli to push business, and this is tile result.”

“Somebody must lose the money?” suggested Rhe interviewer. “Yes,” he replied. “Sometimes it is tho retailer, but in many casco it is the merchant. Because they can get credit they order as much as would do for i month. There is ao occasion for that when they are oil a weekly wage; they should only order i weekly supply.”

“Do tlit'y not get it cheaper b.v procuring ii larger quantity?” “It is a mistake for the ordinary housewife to get in a large supply. The children take it out and play with it, and it is wasted because they have the quantity. How can a housewife expect to economise it she has four times the necessary quantity on hand? Then again, many wives are bad managers, and they think they are doing a great thing for themselves hy getting their necessaries in quantities. “Look at the question from another point of view. Go into the Post Office and ask for a penny stamp on credit, and what will he the reply? They cannot work on the credit system, and they have no bookkeeping and no bid debts.”