C.O.D. SYSTEM.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 10712, 9 October 1928, Page 2

C.O.D. SYSTEM.

GROWS 1 8-FOLD IN THREE YEARS..

RETAILERS’ STRONG PROTEST. ) In' New Zealand there is a firm paying to our Postal Department over £II,OOO per year, said. Mr., French, chairman of the Eastings Retailors’ Association, in p, recent address; yet our Postal Department- is giving advantages to oversea traders, who,"iso far as New Zealand is concerned, are tax free, and whoso parcels are delivered by the New Zealand Government for nothing because thfe> postage goes to tlih credit of the country from whence the, parcels come. Such parcels are immune, from costs which ordinary freight must pay, and, in addition the Postal Department ; collects the oversea r accounts at a nominal charge. And when petitions are presented to Parliament against the injustices of the C.O.D. system, 6ome newspaper writers decry the prayer of the petitioners as an "old familiar argument.” Tlie time has cbme for the perfectly legitimate demand for a fair basis of competition in the growing struggle for New Zealand trade— New Zealand traders, against overseas traders. 3,f the Government intervenes it should be on the side of its own tax-payers. First, there is the growth .of the cash on delivery system, which the following hgures disclose:—

Now, I believe Australia was wide enough awake to its own interests to refuse to render the service to oversea traders of. collecting their accounts, and so protecting them from bad debts, It is stated that when such a proposal was considered on behalf of New Zealand ci.ty traders, it was rejected because it would aid the metropolitan traders to compete more severely against country’ . traders—and yet the Government is doing the same thing for over-sea traders !

The "New Zealand traders have a right to claim that in their, battle to supply the trade of their own country, "their Government, should not give a> particle of. advantage to their overseas competitors. To accede to that just request requires more than the abolition,of the C.O.D. system. It calls for full payments for all services- rendered m handling overseas postal packets: And it calls for relief from burdens which are in excess of those borne by oversea traders. There are advantages possessed by overseas traders competing for New Zealand trade, such as': (1) Having to carry no stocks in the Do.rninicn; (2) Ability to do business on a smaller stock by reason of’ their close situation to most of the sources of supply; (3) no risk of changing demands affecting big New Zealand trade because they carry no Dominion stock. , , Allowing those natural advantages the New Zealand traders are prepared to meet and beat their competitors if the following lartihcial handicaps are adjusted: —(l) The resignation of the Government the “debt collector, for the -iV?rseas traders; (2 1 the relief of the oversea traders from the colossal task of collecting Customs duties iron the ultimate nurebaser, and the n- 5d to impose'“full"duty on goods imported by parcel post, (3) the immunity of overseas postal parcels from harbour dues and other charges, borne by ordinary imports; (4) the lvglicn wages paid to our Dominion employees ; (5) higher rents; 16) higher rates.

—Inward Overseas.— Value. Year. 1 Parcels. £ 1924 ... ... . .. 3,mo 12,100 1927 . .. 27,379 97,232 This shows how it is affecting provincial towns: In 1927 there arrived: Value. Town. Parcels. £ In Greymouth ... 1973 736» In Westport ... 1352 5613 In Gisborne ... 1433 5081