DEBTS NOT PAID.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20392, 22 October 1929, Page 7

DEBTS NOT PAID.

PEOPLE CHANGE NAMES< POWER ACCOUNTS NOT MET. LOSS IN WAITEMATA AREA, "One of our biggest bugbears is the person who changes his name as often as lie changes his address," stated Mr. A.; Main, secretary-treasurer to the Waitemata Power Board, in a report to the board yesterday regarding consumers' current accounts. Tho condition of the accounts was generally good, .Mr. Main said,, although the board had continually to press people for payment. On the recommendation of! tho secretarytreasurer it was agreed to write off 81 bad debts, totalling £llß 18s. Mr. Main stated that existing economic conditions made it difficult for many poor people to pay accounts promptly. Every endeavour had been made to recover the amounts outstanding, but it wbuld bo waste of time to send good money after bad in an endeavour to collect more. "We should show no mercy to people who evade their responsibility like that," said Mr. J. Mackie, in referring to the secretary's statement that many people changed their names in order to secure credit. I'iio chairman, Mr. J. W. Hayden, said that in looking through the names of those in Takapuna owing money he was convinced that it would be waste of time trying to collect their accounts. The majority of tho men concerned had been on relief work. Although the amounts were written off it did not mean that the board discarded the accounts altogether. Mr. Main said the proportion of bad debts in the board's area compared with tho total number of consumers was really not large. A total of 84,000 accounts was sent out yearly, and the position generally was good. Included in the debts now considered irrecoverablo\ were several incurred by speculative builders who had become bankrupt. It had been impossible to trace ono woman, although apparently tho whole-country had been searched by collectors. One debt of £3 7s 5d had been incurred by a man after changing his name. It was hopeless trying to get anything further from ono woman in Takapuna. She is one of tlioso who pay a deposit of £2, live for six months and pay nobody," Mr. Main remarked. Thero was not one bad debt in. the Waitemata County area. Birkenhead was an excellent locality from the board's viewpoint, as there were only three bad debts throughout the borough. In Helensville there was only one.