LAW-MAKING IN HASTE

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22432, 20 June 1938, Page 10

LAW-MAKING IN HASTE

COMMONS PASSES HIRE PURCHASE BILL CONGRATULATIONS FOR WOMAN MEMBER

LONDON, May 7,

There was some uncommonly, swift legislation in the House of Commons this morning. In about three-quarters of an hour a bill to regulate hire purchase, introduced by Miss Ellen Wilkinson, passed its report stage and third reading. The main effect of the measure, as Miss Wilkinson remarked, is to restrict the right of the owner of goods bought under hire purchase to enter the hirer’s premises and take possession of the articles. With amendments made to-day, notably a new clause upon the duty of the hirer to inform the owner of the whereabouts of goods, the bill has the general approval of the hire-purchase trade. Motor-cars are exempted from its operation on the ground that a car is not “a single article.”

Miss Wilkinson, moving the third reading, gracefully thanked the Law Officers and her fellow members for her success in carrying the bill thaough the House. She claimed for it that it would end a scandal and make many poor people happier. She was then overwhelmed with congratulations from all sides. The Attorney-General, Sir Donald Somervell, judicially pronounced that she had been extremely wise and patient in arduous negotiations about the bill. These and other tributes to her skill and tact and earnestness Miss Wilkinson received with deprecating smiles and the passing of the bill was warmly cheered.