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Taihape Daily Times, Issue 160, 13 July 1916, Page 4

hope of advantage to himself, and for bargains in which he proportioned his profit to .his own opinion of the risk taken; and there seems no just cause why one should punish the other for a contract in which both concurred. He fiat owes more than he can pay, is often obliged to bribe his creditor to patience, by increasing the debt. High interests are exacted; worse and worse commodities, at a higher and higher price, are forced upon him; he is impoverished by being tied to compulsive traffic, until he is overwhelmed. It may reasonably be said, that without his consent these debts were accumulated on his head. These old time logicians, as well as many noted jurists, objected to the general taxpayer acting as debt collector for unduly enerprising tradesmen; they contended that debt, that was not fraudulent, was not a crime, and even if it were so construed, the seller was equally culpable with the buyer, for he must contribute to its commission. Therefore, it was unjust to the general taxpayer's money in keeping up an institution for the collection of debts and the punishmet of helpless debtors, and who will deny that their assumptions were not just. When debt is no longer punishable, credit will cease; the laws of this country and most other countries cause traders and usurers to give credit when they are not all satisfied that the individual is capable of paying, and they take a course which is sheer persecution. The motive of credit i s the hope of advantage. Commerce can never stop while one man wants what another can supply; and it seems that credit will never be denied, while it is likely to be repaid with profit. A noted jurist has said that he who trusts one whom he designs to sue, is criminal by the act of trust. The cessation of credit from an ethical point of view is desirable. Nation trades with nation where no payment can be compelled; merchants in respective countries continue to satisfy each other though they have nothing to fear but the loss of trade. One need only attend tho sittings of civil and Supreme Courts tc gain an impression of what it costs the taxpayers of New Zealand to collect debts, and impose penalties en the victims of those who will continue to cultivate the giving of credit. It is a question that ought to be answered by the people, and we are not sure that the time is not near w-hen drastic changes will be brought about. The present credit* system is beset .with many dangers'and incongruities, and the country will awake one day to find how much better it is with its credit system entirely wiped out.

. Mails • for the, Expeditionary Forces, excepting the parcels post, wil close on Tuesday, July < 18th, at 8.20 p.m.

At the Taihape Police Court yes<;'rday morning, before Mr. J. P. Aldridge, J.P., a first offender for drunkenness, was cautioned and discharged.

Under the war regulations, Eberhard Foeke, carrying on business in Wellington under the style of Cassendykc and Foeke, has been prohibited from engaging in foreign trade.

Sir Joseph Ward informed the House last night that the rentals paid by the Government in Wellington was £SBOO per annum. He admitted that it wouu* be more economical to have State Departments in their own offices.

A mass meeting ;tif railway employees of the Petune Workshops passed a (resolution protesting against the withholding of the war bonus ,to rail- - workers until the Appropriation Act is passed.

The farewell social and dance .to be tendered in tho Town Hall to men who are going into camp with the 19th .Reinforcements, takes placo on Saturday, July 22nd, not next Saturday, as stated yesterday.

Mr. J. Or. Findlay, of Invercargill, has been selected out of the applicanons for the position of dispenser at thu Wanganui Hospital. A qualified chemists, he went to Gallipoli as an artilleryman in the New Zealand Main Expeditionary Force, being subsequently invalided home. ,

The following article from the letter of an artillery officer "somewhere in France," which appears in. the London Spectator of April 24. "Did I tell you that the starling out hero hav e acquired the trick of giving three shrill taxi whistles, in imitation of the call for enemy aeroplanes? It is great fun to see everyoufc diving for cover; I was nearly taken in myself the other day."

At the Auckland Police Court, Caroline Graham, in the course of an application for a separation order, stated that when she married the defendant she was a widow with three children. There were also three children by the second marriage. Her husband, who had been home missionary in the Methodist Church, had preached for almost all the denominations except the Anglican, and was earning £6 a week for a year as canvasser for the Seventh Day Adventists. The complainant stated that until two years ago thty had lived on her money, which of a sum of £SOOO left to Jur by her first husband.

A boy for work in a furniture factory ' is wanted by Mr. F. W. Somerville.

In consequence of the nomination of Mr. Fred Pi rani for the Wanganui borough on the Education Board, the Rev. Mr Calder and Mr. J. C. Richardson have retired from the contest. The

candidates now for the two seats are Mrs Comyns, Messrs. W. Bruce, R. Sewell, W. A. Yeitch, M.P., and F. Pirani.

"A Christian who can get rid of his responsibilities by giving a little money is the luckiest man alive," observed the Rev. A. L. Hansell at the Anglican Synod. If they lived in earliec times they would have to build the churches themselves, they would have to teach the young, and have to take people into their homes. Now they could have all this done by giving a small amount of cash.

In a letter received from Mr. Will Hislop, acting Y.M.CA. secretary in France, the following incident (says the Greymouth Evening Star) is reported: "Last Sunday one of our Y.M.CA. huts had a shell through it and was burnt to the ground. The secretary had a narrow escape. It happened at 2 a.m., and he got off with only his pyjamas. We lost about £IOOO worth of stores, besides the building itself. It's hot stuff out here."

Mr. Muiiro, a well-known Labour leader, in a recruiting address at Dunedin, said that the resolution of the Trades Union condemning the MilitaryService Bill was not supported by sane Labour in this district A man who said he would have volunteered if he had had different government was an absolute hypocrite A man who would on the same level as the man Avho on the same level as the man who allowed a " bully'' to knock a woman about.

Speaking of ihp war generally Admiral Mato'i fitua remarked to an Auckland reporter:—"l think we are now seeing great battles on land that will hasten the end of this terrible war. But when will it end? Who can say? It may be this year; but, of course, Ido not know. And then there will be the war for trade. T.hat is quite right, I think. Germany cannot be trusted, and would go on building ships for another war if she got her old trade back."

Some of the units of the Expeditionary Force that have left New Zealand have taken dogs with them as mascots. Those that survived the trip on fie transport were usually lost sight of in Egypt, where the animals sometimes develop a profound dislike of the natives, with inevitable results. . "Word has been received in Auckland that the bulldog taken by'the fourth battalion of Lord Liverpool's Own has actually reached the trenches in France, where the mascot was reported .to be -healthy and • cheerful.

Shortly before 6 o'clock last evening a fire was discovered in the laundry occupied by Mrs Eales, in Hautapu Street. It appears that one of the children accidentally set fire to a roil of bedding standing in a corner cf the room. The alarm was given arid the local brigade were quickly on the scene, but the fire was practically .subdued before their arrival, except for t-K corner of the room. H.?ca the fla; ie had got behind the lining, but the brigade had little difficulty in putting this out. The total damage done was verp slight. The building is owned by Mr. Batt, of Mangaweka.

In the course of some remarks to returned soldiers at the King George Fifth Hospital at Rotorua, yesterday afternoon, the Hon. G. W. Russell Minister for Public Health, told the men that it had been definitely decided that in the event of their illness recurring after their discharge, the Government would accept the responsibility for their care. If they found, after going back to civil employment, that the disabilities suffered through active service continued to give them trouble, they should report to the medical officer for their district in order that, through him, they might be sent to a public hospital or a convalescent home for treatment.