PAWNBROKING AND POVERTY

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 215, 10 September 1908, Page 5

PAWNBROKING AND POVERTY

[from otra. correspondent. ]

WELLINGTON, Wednesday. The gentlemen whorun those useful establishments,' the outward and visible sign of whose business nature are the traditional "three gilt balls," are to have their privileges cut down a little. It is alleged that they have been charging a higher rate of interest than .it is advisable should be imposed, and consequently hardship has. been occasioned to the poorer class of borrower who ? in time of financial stress, goes t<> his "Uncle" for relief. A Pawnbrokers' Bill is now before the Council, and has been referred to a special committee. Unless some amendment can be effected it is just possible, so the Attorney-General hinted yesterday, that a State Pawnbroking Department might have to be created. In this, New Zealand for ; once would , not be "leading the world j" for a State "pop-shop —the Mont de Piete—has existed in France for many years, and the system is said to work very well. ; In France, by the way, it may be noted "ma tante " ("my aunt") is the. popular nickname for the pawnshop. In England and in English colonies the hardup ones go to their "Uncle." Personally I don't think there is so much money made out of pawnbroking in New Zealand as some people might imagine There are not as many pawnshops in Wellington to-day as there were ten years ago, despite the vast' increase in" population, and I don't think there are any fortunes made out of the game. * For a pawnbroker to prosper a large proportion of hardup workers is necessary, and apparently Wellington is too prosperous for "Uncle" to be doing very well just now. All the same theYe, is an under-our.rent of poverty, as anyone can vouch' for whose business takes him to the meetings of the Benevolent Trustees. Only yesterday a very sad case came to light. A young woman with a child of seven and a chronic consumptive for a husband were found to bo living in one I room (sleeping in one bed) for which the poor wretch was paying 8s a week rent. At the best of times she could only earn about £1 a week, and no\y, being threatened with exclusion from the house 3 she could not find another room for less than 12s a week. The Trustees decided to ask the Health Department to look after the husband and to grant rations to the poor wife and child. This is as sad a* case as I have yet heard of in Wellington. Yes, there is poverty here, below the surface, maybe, and to be sought out maybe, but it is there notwithstanding.