C.O.D. SYSTEM

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 5, 6 July 1928, Page 11

C.O.D. SYSTEM

-.. ' •■ ♦ -r-.. ..'.■• SHOULD IT BE ABOLISHED? % Claiming that the operation of- the cash^on-delivery system is;causing.hardship to traders in the smaller towns, a number of Wanganui manufacturers, wholesale and •■■retail distributors, and their employees are petitioning Parliament with a request that the system should be abolished. The petition stated that it was desired that tho existing arrangement betweon tho New Zealand Postal Department and tho British Post Office permitting the importation of articles into Now Zealand under the C.O.D. system should be abolished. Under the system the British merchant became the competitor of the New Zealand merchant dealing fn similar goods. The British merchant had no capital invested in New Zealand, paid no local rates or taxes of any kind, was assured of payment of all his accounts, and, in short, was absolutely relieved of any of tho costs of conducting a business in New Zealand. Tho system, it was claimed, was of no value to New Zealand, as it meant a loss of revenue to the Government and the people could obtain goods of at least oqual quality and value from New Zealand merchants. The system lent itself to evasion of the Customs regulations, because the value of each parcel being comparatively small, less care was taken in its examination and in tho assessment of duty than was taken in the case of imports in bulk.