SECOND EDITION [Established 1878.] WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20, 1894. PAWNBROKERS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4752, 20 June 1894, Page 2

SECOND EDITION [Established 1878.] WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20, 1894. PAWNBROKERS.

" Pawxiirokgrs ought to give money ■to the poor much cheaper," writes in anothor portion of our present issue a correspondent who professes to he in touch with the unemployed, In the Wairarapa we have virtually no pawnbroker! Upon one occasion the" three golden halls" were duly hung out in Queen Street, hut local humour was too pronounced for an emblem of this character, and one fine morning the budding pawnbroker discovered the three balls to be missing, and a bunch of carrots wcro suspended in their stead. This appears to. have been the first and last of pawnbroking enterprise in the Wairarapn, and the reference made by our correspondent is evidently intended for the Empire City. Now, it is somewhat singular that at the present time the poor in Wellington are becoming victims toj pawnbrokers, and Mr John Webb! deserves somo credit for calling attention to an anomalous condition of a trade affecting the very poor which has been overlooked by Liberal politicians and ignored; by the press. It is not generally known that the fees charged by pawnbroker* in Now Zealand are about four times as high astherates imposed in England, and an these are fixed by legislation in both cases' it follows that the poor in this colony are penalised by an Act of Parliament. On a pledge of half a crown or upwards a rate of interest equivalent to 80 per cent per annum is charged in this colony. The pawnbrokers have not only security for. their advances but they are authorised by law to oharge tho usurious interest of 80 per cent, Wo arc not surprised to learn that at tho presenttiraethepawnbroking business is about the most flourishing and profitable trade in the Empire City. Tho fees cbargod are indeed so high that it is said that poor porspns who are compelled to plcdgo thoir efforts havo to abandon the hopo of redeeming them. This we learn is tho state of things in the Empire City and probably in all tho largo towns of New Zealand, The very poorare driven to the wall and crashed by money-lending at 80 per cent, Porhaps it would bo well if there were no lawat.all on the Statue Book controlling the pawnbroking trade, fOr then poor people would sell • their belongings right out to the goneral dealers and do better' bv theni than .with'the licensed establishments, but if the by Act of Parliament thonwe. say that thtifee charged herei elioulcl ,;hot Jbe

more than double ffie English .i-ate: Forty per cent would be high' enough |tp remunerate lendors and that is .exactly the'half of what; they, now obtain. ";.• • -..:■'■-.•