CASH ORDER SYSTEM

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 5 January 1929, Page 5

CASH ORDER SYSTEM

IS IT UNDESIRABLE? OFFICIAL INQUIRY PENDING A MINISTER’S EXPLANATION. (By Telegraph—Special to The Star.) WELLINGTON, Jan. 4. * ‘There appears to be some misunderstanding amongst the public and at least one of the leading newspapers of the Dominion,” said the Hon. J. G. Cobbe, Minister of Industries and Commerce, concerning the particular subject which enquiries are to be made by a commission that will be set up in the near future to consider the cash order trading system. This trading system seems to have been confused with the cash on delivery (C.0.D.) method of purchasing goods from abroad through the postal department. Actually there is no relation whatever between the two, as the cash order trading system is a class of time payment used by consumers of goods purchased within the Dominion. Briefly tlie cash order trading system, into which the enquiry is to he made, operates as follows: An individual or firm holds itself out to . the public as being . willing to issue to approved clients orders which on presentation to 1 one or more traders among a list of traders, will he accepted in exchange for goods. The firm issuing the cash order collects the amount of the order in instalments from the client and the client pays a commission to the individual or firm issuing the order. The retailer who accepts the order or portion of it from the client tenders the order in due course to the order issuing individual or firm and secures payment, less an agreed upon discount. Certain features of this system are alleged to be uneconomic and socially undesirable, and for this reason the Government has decided to make an exhaustive inquiry into the operations of this method of encouraging credit trading.”