THE CREDIT SYSTEM.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3014, 23 March 1926, Page 4

THE CREDIT SYSTEM.

DISCUSSED BY GROCERS’ FEDERATION.

The bad debt problem was discussed at the conference of the Grocers’ Federation after a paper read by Mr. Robert Burley, of Wellington who stated that the law afforded little protection to traders, and placed the onus on the creditor of proving that the debtor was in a position to pay. The present conditions tended to encourage dishonesty, and to increase the percentage of people who practically lived at the expense of the shopkeeper. The remedy lay in an amendment of the present complex process for the recovery of bad debts. He claimed that no other place in the Empire placed such obstacles in the way of bad debt recovery. The law should be made more severe against persons who obtained credit by misrepresentation. Another paper by Mr. Luxford (Wanganui) expressed the opinion that a city grocer in a central position should not give credit; as to others, credit should be limited to a week where the customer drew a weekly salary, and two weeks where the customer was paid fortnightly. Restriction in the country was more difficult; farmers were accustomed to unlimited credit, and it would take time to educate them to make more use of the banks and less of the trader. In England, grocers never gave credit. In speaking of the strictures passed by magistrates against storekeepers who gave credit, Mr. Henderson, president of the conference, said: “I think the Magisterial attitude is unreasonable. The whole system of business is based on credit. They forget that.” The conference proceeded to discuss a remit from Stratford on the subject.