HIRE-PURCHASE SYSTEM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 220, 17 September 1930, Page 19

HIRE-PURCHASE SYSTEM.

diversity op opnrams. "KEEP GOYEEXMENT OUT.?

Diverse opinions regarding ihe hirepurchase system were advanced at a. meeting of tie Auckland Advertising Clui yesterday. Mr. L. A. Eady thought it was a. question of how far a man was justified in mortgaging his prospective earnings. A prominent English banker had" called it tie greatest innovation of modern distributing activity. He iad uttered a. warning against excesses. Where the system referred to productive linesj the business men ought to support it, tiought Mr. Eady, but where It referred to unproductive lines it siould be condemned. Mr. Eady said the results of the worst aspect of tie hire-purchase system were to be seen in the Magistrate's Court, and much of tie misery in homes today iad Its origin in tie buying of luxuries by that system. Mr. E. E. Kltciener said he did not like the system, but It was a question to-day of necessity knowing no law, and the system was simply thrust on the modern business man. Would It not be possible to have some Goverament supervision as to tie capacity of individuals to enter upon a hire-purchase agreement? asked Mr. P. GL Baskett. That, to Ms mind, was the root of the trouble. "Tor heaven's sake let us keep the Government out of it!* , exclaimed Mr. R. A. Laidlaw. fc Tf once they get in nobody knows where they are going to end. who can .tell whether a commodity is or is not a luxury J A luxury to-day is a necessity to-morrow." In the past competition tad solved Its own difficulties and it would do so In tie future. Things had a habit of rightIng themselves, he added.