Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, DEC. 8, 1891. Loan Offices.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 8 December 1891, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, DEC. 8, 1891. Loan Offices.

— » At Mr McLean's political meeting last week, he is reported to have said, in reply to a question, " that he really was in favour of abolishing ! loan offices at the earliest possible moment. If people did not borrow at such places they would have to shut up in three months." This may be a very jaunty remark to make, bnc it was not a statesmanlike oue. It really was not an expression of opinion as to how the business of j these offices were carried on. It ; might be better if people did not

11 ' <■■■ i mif^t\^mmmmmm^m.mmm.mmmmmmmm^mm Oorrow, but when the Government of the colony sets such an example of borrowing, it is unreasonable to suppose that the supporters of that Government, the electors, will not also borrow. Loan offices properly conducted are most necessary, and the whole question depends on that. We have loan offices, for people who are fairly well off, in the Banks, but they make reasonable charges because they have to deal with those who have some business aptitude. Pawnbrokers and small loan olfices are started to trade with the necessities of the poor, and without saying one word against the colonial ones, we have it on record that similar institutions in the older countries bear most heavily on the poorer classes. The poor offer, for the amount they borrow, as good a security as the merchant does to his banker, in fact, the poor man frequently gives a far larger margin for his loan. It is reasonable then for a poor man to testify some interest in the opinions of those who come forward as his selected representative in Parliament on this matter, and the reply, that he had better not borrow is as satisfying as it is sensible. The poor man may at any moment, from sickness, become bankrupt of all but the tools and furniture he possesses, and he certainly is entitled to be ablo to obtain a loan on as reasonable terms from a loan office as those who offerother, but only as good a security to the Banks. It is not many years ago that a suggestion was made to establish an institution in England similar to the Mont-dc Piete in France, which is a huge pawnbroking establishment. This Government institution in 1888 received in pawn 1,510,957 articles as security for £1,425,357 lent. The greater part of the articles pledged were for sums of from six to ten francs, and then came articles pledged from three to four francs. To show the proportion that the smaller amounts bore to the total, only 1*77 per cent of the whole amount was lent in sums between £20 and £40, while the proportion of pledges over £40 was but I*2B per cent. In Paris the business is conducted under Government surveilance, and the rate of interest is only nine per cent per annum. It is said that if a similar system prevailed in London, the poor would be saved £720,000 a year ! The London Standard, remarking on this proposal, says : — " Yet what is the difference in principle to pledging parchments to a banker, and pledging- instruments to a pawnbroker? There is none. Yet no-b-dy is ashamed of doing the one thing,* and everybody is ashamed of doing the other. Why should not the working man have some public establishment to repair to where he can enter and transact his business with head erect, and caring not who sees him in the Act, instead of slinking in and out of the side door as if he was a criminal, and losing a. little more of his own self-respect every time he repeats the operation ?" In face of this, the working man's frieud (?) tells him not to borrow, and then loan offices must phut up, and that is the only solution of the difficulty he can see !