Rented Television Much More Popular

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30482, 2 July 1964, Page 3

Rented Television Much More Popular

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, July 1.

There had been a considerable increase in the popularity of television set rentals in the last year, the Tariff and Development Board inquiry into hire-purchase and credit trading was told today.

. Submitting a report from the Department of Industries and' Commerce, Mr H. P. Lachmann. said that in April, 1964, 8 per cent of all sets licensed in New ' Zealand were hired, against 5 per cent at the end of the 1962 calendar year. .

fluenced by factors not applicable to New Zealand.

Mr Lachmann said complaints had been received by the department from several retailers and the Radio, Television and Electrical Retailers’ Association about the practice of. some retailers offering to convert a rental contract into a hire-purchase agreement by crediting the total rentals paid towards the statutory minimum deposit under the Hire-Purchase and Credit . Sales Stabilisation Regulations.

For the four main centres the percentages in April, 1964, were: Auckland 10, Wellington 10, Christchurch 5, Dunedin 16.

Very low percentages were recorded for secondary towns, the average being 2j per cent.

The number under rental agreements in the whole country in April, 1964, was 14,425 out of 179,153 sets licensed. Mr Lachmann said the New Zealand percentage of 8 was low compared with the Australian figure of between 20 and 25 per cent, and a United Kingdom figure of SO per cent, which; however, was in-

A further complaint had been about the exemption of rental agreements from the requirement of a statutory deposit which was said to give them an unfair advantage. The department had been concerned for some time about the practice of converting rental agreements into _ hire-purchase agreements and had told several retailers that it was illegal to credit the rents paid towards the statutory minimum deposit.