TIME-PAYMENT SALES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 259, 1 November 1928, Page 10

TIME-PAYMENT SALES.

BUYERS WHO SELL—THEN VANISH.

Chief Detective Hammond is not in favour of time payment systems. He made this very clear at the Police Court this morning when Raymond Cecil Harding (25) was presented oij a charge of stealing a cycle valued at £10 19/6.

Harding pleaded guilty. Mr. Hammond said that accused bought a cycle, paying 4/ as dpposit. The next week he sold it to a dealer in Dominion Road for £1. Harding had been in trouble before.

Accused was remanded until to-mor-row morning for sentence, and a rej>ort from the Probation Officer.

Harding said that he had been up against it. His wife had been confined and he wanted money to buy medicine for her, so he got, a loan of £1 on the cycle. He did not sell the cycle.

"This hire purchase system is Tindermining the credit of the country," said Mr. Hammond. "We arc always chasing cycles and goods bought by people on the time payment system and afterwards sold by buyers who vanish."

The Chief Detective gave an instance to the magistrate. Recently a family arrived from England. The husband had been out of work, but a friend got him a job on a ship which went to England. His wife got a quantity of furniture on time payment and afterwards sold it for £40, returning to England. The person who bought the furniture usually had it seized by the owners or else had to pay the balance of the money owing on it.

Mr. P. K. Hunt, S.M.: The orginal vendors should be compelled to make inquiries or get some guarantee, or reference from the buyer, then it would be better.

Mr. J. R. Lundon addressed a crowded meeting at Point Chevalier on Tuesday evening under the auspices of the local ratepayers' association. He dealt with, among other subjects, the Dixieland baths question and transport, and received a vote of thanks and confidence. Mr. W. H. Murray and Mr. H. P. Taylor also spoke. This evening Mr. Lundon speaks in St. Benedict's Hall.