WOMEN AND CREDIT.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 281, 1 June 1917, Page 1 (Supplement)

WOMEN AND CREDIT.

SOME POINTS WHICH NEED CONSIDERATION. by m\a. peter david. lu the London Daily Mail. Existence has reached such a narrow circle that it is difficult on occasion to realise whether further economies can be effected without producing wastage or extravagance in another direction. The suggestion that drapers should cease to give credit is rather of this nat ure. There axe aspect** to the credit system which deserve consideration before another edict conies to cripple it - Ear irom the woman with credit being tho more extravagant, they are very likely, because of this credit, less inclined to spend. Tne constant use of the cheque-book often means very little money in the actual purse. !t frequently happens, as a. great number of women can testify, that in passing a sliop a woman sees in the window some small thing she likes. She iuis not sufficient ready money witk which to pay for it, and the shop nap-|K-ns to tie one where she has no account. There are two courses open to her. One is to go without; the other to enter the building, make the purchase, give references, and have the article delivered. This, in the present congestion of shop work, may entail considerations extending over a considerable time, and if the customer lives in the country and is staying in a city s!k> n obliged to give two addresses. NEEDLESS EXPENSE.

Such is the long story which flashes through the mind of the woman with > redit i'nd tempted to stop by the way. The probable result is she goesoorn r while the cash customer will probably purchase the article. Were this convenient credit system to be abolished lor people living in the • v.uniry it would mean expense to the home, work for the Post Office, and the printing and paper making for many more postal orders and penny stamps. As it is, to-day a postcard i» sufficient for an order, when recording to the suggested new reguiat'ons iU would require notcpaper, envelope, postal order,and a penny stamp. All this trouble to busy women who live far from v, po-t office would not reduce tlupurehase of necessities. It would make for waste and extravagance on the one hand, even if it limited the buying of small luxuries on the other. .Much abuse is hurled at women for extravagance, but gltter i« always seen before gold, aaid the few luxurioupeople there arc about increase in proportion in the eyes of the critical onlooker. Women, on the whole, are anxious, especially when they cannot move far out into the world, to do thenbit. It happens they have been evolved on certain lines and they have never been r.sked to study the secrets of commerce or the economic points which make for its sucoes-. There are. however, some things Kvirich women could do. and there is not the slightest doubt, if the value of the fiction only *» pointed out to tiiem, that they would readily perform it.

One of such is tho common-acme fc--ity of paying accounts when they come in. Sometimes it hsppens tliat tho bill is so smaJl it is not worth bothering about: it can wait another month or so. The month passes. Meanwhile the clerk has to send in a reminder '"To account rendered." This means stationery, valuable paper, printers' labour, -tamp, time., and po.i ciii'v work. WASTED LABOUR. Kvorybody knows the value p>r hour of labour nowadays, and it really ' 6 not fair to the tradesmen, nor to the country, that this unncce-sary trouble should bo put on any on". This is proh-r-b'y one of the reason' why the question of credit has arisen ; but- the public would much more approbate it if they were told the cau*e of such suggested prohibitions and given au opportunity to moid their ways. Agam, it i- unrcasonaMe that shops sln dd bo expected or allowed to retain more labour than is absolutely necessary Comments are occasionally mack on some parti-.-ular shop having numerous a.'-si-aanU gossiping round. The very people who make ilmvo comments r.ro often the greatest s : nners in the matter of wasing time over " trying en" and -approbation." Every trader, if he be honest, will confess that there ••■e number.' of people who have things sent on approval who never intend to buv them. , this n,probation HtiMno*. nnless H 1,0 sin;<-re. is a very discred'tablo amusement. It means that some-iody s time must be occupied in rk«<patening, delivery, and reviving back. If statures of this wast" of time were kept they would sbo-A hours of wasted lalx.ur that would iu-t now appal even the mostwrofligato. Yet quite naturally this sit-l.ftt-on ha* not occurred to some women who trv on clothes, possihry for the sake , f something to do. sometime- as x method of -eeing if they could lw> eopied. and learning the means to that r \lt, in these j,nd similar direction* if practised bv the publie, would „, doubt put an end to this inconvenient suggestion of doing away wit: women's er <ll.