A CRUSHING INDICTMENT OF THE MODERN SHYLOCK.

Waikato Argus, Volume V, Issue 336, 3 September 1898, Page 1 (Supplement)

A CRUSHING INDICTMENT OF THE MODERN SHYLOCK.

The report of the Select Committee on Moneylending was published on July 2nd. The Committee have held 10 sittings this sessiou, during which they examined 40 witnesses, chief of whom was Mr Thomas Farrow, hou, secretary of the Agricultural Banks Association, whose examination lasted six days. The Committee state that they have unhesitatiugly come to the conclusion that the system of moneylendiii" by professional moneylenders at high rates of interest is productive of crime, bankruptcy, unfair advantage over other creditors of the borrower, extortion from the borrower's family aud friends, and other serious injuries to the community. A crushing indictment of the dishonest systems indulged in by the modern moneylenders is contaiued in the two following sentences which sum up the whole feeling of the Committee on the subject:—Although your Committee are satisfied that the system is sometimes honestly conducted, they are of opinion that only in rare cases is a person benefited by a loan obtained from a professional moneylender, and that the evil attendant upon the system far outweighs the good. They therefore consider that there is urgent need for the interposition of the Legislature with a view to removing the evil. As for the remedying this evil, the Committee have considered several schemes all more or less utilitarian, and all more or less with the object of restricting whole sale usury. The Committee do not recommend any fixed rate of interest such as that which obtains iu certain States of America, but have arrived at the conclusion that the only effectire remedy for the evils attendant upon the system of moneylending by professional moneylenders is to give the Cour;s absolute and unfettered discretion in dealing with these transactions. They therefore recommend that all transactions, by whatever name they may be called, or whatever their form may be, which are in substance transactions with psrsous carrying on the business of a moneylender in the course of such business, should be open to complete judicial review.