C.O.D. System To Go

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 691, 17 June 1929, Page 8

C.O.D. System To Go

Home Firms Ready For Change

ANTICIPATING the early abolition by the New Zealand Post and Telegraph Department of the cash-on-delivery system of parcels transportation, a number of British business houses have made private arrangements for continuity of this business within the Dominion,

In recent years over £IOO,OOO has passed through the hands of the department annually under the c.o.d. system.

A few months ago the Post and Telegraph Department in New Zealand gave the British postal authorities six months’ notice of its intention. to terminate the c.o.d. agreement made between the United Kingdom and the Dominion in 1920, and extended to the Fijian Islands in 1926.

The decision to end this agreement was produced largely by the consistent representations to the Government of business people within New Zealand, who saw, as a result of it, hundreds of thousands of pounds disappearing into overseas hands instead of being absorbed by local manufacturers.

In nearly’ 10 years a big association has been organised between trade interests in New Zealand and in the Old Country, under cash-on-delivery conditions. So important a factor is it in the general trading operations of some big Home firms, and so anxious are they to retain the Dominion’s custom, that arrangements ' are now being made throughout the country to establish agencies and companies here to carry on the work when the collection falls from the hands of the Post Office. EMBARRASSMENT TO AUTHORITIES A company "was recently formed, and is now operating in Auckland, which undertakes to carry the c.o.d. system one degree further than the postal authorities had done. Under the 1920 agreement with the New Zealand Government, firms in Great Britain and Ireland were enabled to send parcels to people in New Zealand at a cost of 2Jd in the £ value, plus 3d in addition to the usual postage costs. In addition, the recipient paid 4d a parcel over and above the cost of the goods. The arrangement operated conversely, allowing people in Great Britain to order goods from New Zealand, but this benefit was hardly ever used by Home purchasers. The rapid increase in the volume of business passing through the Post and Telegraph Department under this agreement; and the huge amount of money involved in the collections, has long been recognised by the authorities as an administrative embarrassment, offset only by the convenience given to the people v’ho deal direct -with English houses in the quick and efficient delivery of their goods. The Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, expressed the intention some

time ago of abolishing tbe system, as he had found it, he said, to be placing a tremendous burden on the shoulders of the department. The Post and Telegraph Department, Sir Joseph Ward announced, became virtually an agent acting for a class of business which normally would be carried through by the trader himself, and Cabinet, having considered the position in this light, had decided to abolish the c.o.d. system after reasonable time had been given for the completion of current transactions. One of the disadvantages of the c.o.d. system as worked through the post office was that people buying from this country could not inspect the goods they’ intended to purchase. The new company now operating in Auckland has arranged for inspection of samples for the convenience of its clients, aud already has associations with a large number of British firms. AUCKLANDERS DIVIDED

Auckland business men, as represented by the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, are by no means unanimous in their desire to see the c.o.d. system removed from the hands of the Post and Telegraph Department, aud after a spirited controversy recently, a resolution was passed by a narrow margin favouring the retention of the scheme.

The reasons given by the advocates of retention are that the people are enabled to operate conveniently and to secure more expeditious touch with Home business houses than thej’ would do under ordinary trading conditions, although this is effectively countered by the viewpoint that the local trader should at least have the advantage of fair competition. Moreover, the official figures issued by the Government statistician a few days ago revealed that the support for local manufactures was not commensurate -with the expansion of the industries themselves, and that the existence rather than the magnitude of the employees and the wages bill were tbe remarkable circumstances when the figures were studied. Whether or not c.o.d. trading has operated to the detriment of New Zealand can be determined only as time passes, for at present, as the statistician correctly points out, the slowing up in the country's productive machinery, as indicated by the figures, represent the trough of the economic depression which has affected every phase of industrial life.