WELLINGTON NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 February 1925, Page 4

WELLINGTON NOTES.

TIME PAYMENTS

(Special to “Guardi-n”.)

WELLINGTON, February 13.

A {4001! many people look very prosperous with expensive motor-cars and gramophones, and a little inquiry will show that these luxuries are acquired on the time payment plan. The time payment system has been practised in this country for many years, and was at lirsl limited to a few commodities such as pianos, sewing machines and push bicycles, hut in recent years it has been developed and extended to cover gramophones, motorcars, cream separators, milking plants, machinery of various kinds, and in not a few cases land shares are sold in public companies on the instalment plan foi which calls are made at intervals. Dairy farmers know all about the deductions from the milk cheques to meet the costs in connection with cooperative coal mines and for the milking plant, etc. One business man dealing in dairy equipment such as milking machines and separators recently stated that at the moment there was a serious drop in the price ol butter and the cheques for butter fat becoming smaller his business feels it, for the instalments due are not paid promptly and are often not paid for a long lime after due date. Another business man dismissing this subject stated that last year New Zealand imported ol motor-cars daily; the total value of motor vehicles, cycles, parts, material and petrol imports during 1921 was £0,780.270. or one-sixth of the total imports, following the general practice it is sale to say that the greater part of them were paid tor on the time payment system, with comparatively small deposits. , If the enis are not paid for they can he seized, the same as any other article on time payments, lint the stimulus which all this business on credit has and tne extra individual energy released to meet liabilities does not alleet any particular business, hut unless the -■credits arc eloselv watched there must come a time when the debtor is speeded up to the limit. This is just the time when he logically seeks to expand his business, hv opening up other avenues, likewise on credit, with a belief in the future that may not he justified by his judgment. A man may he told that he can double his deliveries hv the possession of a motorlorry. yet lie may, when he has acquired 'it, find Unit lie cannot secure double the deliveries to make, and where the modern trend of speeding up endeavour upon credit has reached its limit. There will not he one such ease to grapple with, hut many. (TiKDIT PLAN OYEIi DONE.

It is obvious according to this authority that this plan of payments by instalments is being overdone. This system, lias readied a tremcnodus vogue in the United States, and it is alleged that American concerns are looking for onoiiings in New Zealand. Just what is the volume of these weekly and monthly payments in New Zealand is not known, hut that it is a very substantial sum is certain. The ramifications” of this time payment system are so great that it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell what a mail owes because his debts are scattered ever so many small payments, and it is liecoming more difficult to tell whether his in vestments are assets, or merely small equities in properties, the increase in the value of which may not he sufficient to pay the interest on the unpaid balance. It is no exaggeration

to say that there are men m apparent Iv prosperous positions whose lile policies, owing to the ramified nature of their interests and the losses inevitable on their winding up by other people, would scarcely leave their families anything. There are. luckily, very few of these, hut they are examples of the ease with which credit is secured, v.lioli. in Hie light- <•!' tin- growing rx-

tccsioii -if the •y: Icm ol TudmilrJ . redds on small deposits, gi'.e rise to serious lliought, especially in view ol the pleasure-loving trend of modern life where, in addition to the siijms weekly absorbed in meeting incurred debts, a certain amount must he set aside for social amusements of the community if the credit of the individual is to appear good. HEARER BREAD. \Ye are being warned in Wellington that the price offered is certain to rise after the end of the current month, and housekeepers are naturally very much concerned.' It is stated that there is an absolute shortage ol New Zealand wheat and of course of Hour, and instead of the Government helping the people to obtain adequate supplies at reasonable prices, the Reform Go\ern 111011 1 has gone out ol its way to see that the people pay a heavy bread tax, for the increased prices ol bread will, it is stated, amount to a halt-penny per 21b loaf. The people of the North Island regard this as an unnecessary penalty imposed upon them to maintain a vicious monopoly. The Hour mills in New Zealand are capable of producing three times as much lh>ur as the Dominion requires. That is the secret of the whole thing. The Hour milling business is overdone, and the people ol the North Island feel that they are being exploited for the benefit oi' the millers. The position would never have been as had as it is, had not the Government interfered in the matter, but'with price-fixing, subsidy, embargo and what not the Government has become foolishly tangled up and the unfortunate householders must now pay a heavy bread tax. The North Island electors will certain I v call the Reform Government to account for this bread tax, and in any case the Reform Party will get its marching orders next election.