TOO MUCH CREDIT.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 1 May 1922, Page 5

TOO MUCH CREDIT.

"HEAPING THE WHIRLWIND."

' Members of the Council of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce -commented last week on the credit system in New Zealand, and agreed that merchants should take steps to effect a reduction. The president of the Chamber (Mr. J.. T. Martin) said that' a recent issue of the Mercantile Gazette recorded 558 cases taken for debt in the Magistrates' Courts. That showed the great (extension of the credit system. The large mercantile houses had been giving credit to a very large extent, in some cases beyond their own limits, and the small traders who were working on the capital of the larger houses had been doing the .same. The result was a credit system which _was probably more extensive than in any other country in the world. It did not stand for thrift and had a general tendency to weaken finance. He hoped that the commercial! community, as the result of the present financial stringency, would take the opportunity of getting closer to the ; cash basis. The small traders were not alone to blame. J Indeed, he blamed the mercantile houses who 'dealt with the , farmers more. They realised now that they had been too lavish in credit, and they were reaping the whirlwind.' ■ Mr. J. Myers said that it was the ■: duty of all members of the chamber to try to reduce the amount of credit given. The list of cases showed that many debts were of amounts of £7 and £9. showing that retailers had been giving almost unlimited credit._ Another member of the chamber said that the trading organisations at their were making arrangements to uake a very strong pull on credit terms.