TOPICS OF THE TIMES.

Southland Times, Issue 19899, 18 June 1926, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE TIMES.

“Whether instalment-purchase is fundamentally sound or not, one thing is clear—that it has set up an entirely new situation in America, and that no one can foresee what will result from it,” says the Economist. “Trade ebbs and flows, and no one, however optimistic, can discard the possibility or the likelihood of trade in America at some time receiving a check and a setback. And if and when this setback comes, the country may be faced with a novel and very interesting problem. Not only is every manufacturer producing at high pressure to meet the present demand, but in many trades, notably in the motor industry, he has ‘scheduled’ a great increase of production on which the whole policy of his business rests; and while he is planning this greater output for the future, he is still collecting from the consumer the payment for goods bought months ago and already partially consumed. The country, in fact, may come to its trade reaction with a great industrial programme in full swing, relying on a body of consumers who not merely have not been saving, but are actually in debt to their manufacturers—consumers who are so far from having the accumulations of thrift to draw upon that they are still in pawn for their past luxuries. Observers in the United States are already sounding a note of caution, stating that this hire-purchase can be regarded as a kind of inflation, that the convincing motor salesman may prove to have nullified the careful anti-inflation policy of the banking authorities .and that once the system has become generally popular, it is extremely difficult for the manufacturers either to abolish or to restrict it. Whether this is so or not, the position is full of interest, arid it would appear to be beyond dispute that the effects of any sudden decline in trade must be aggravated and complicated by the new system of longterm retail credit.” For some time the allowance made to the Lord Mayor of London has been the suoject of private consideration at Guildhall, says a correspondent of the Times. Even before the war there was a fee’ing that the growing duties of the mayoralty placed rather too onerous a burden on the should ers of the occupant of the office. The war and its aftermath, with the decrease in the value of money, again brought up the question, and it would certainly have been tackled but for the fina" I-1 dif.'' , '” , lt ; .e3 of the Corporation in conr." : v./th its private estate. For some years now, however, the budget has been balanced, and recent economies have resulted in a surplus. The result of this is that the committee of the Corporation responsible for policy has been instructed to investigate a position which is a little complicated. The Lord Mayor receives by way of allowance £10,375 a year, and is provided with the Mansion House as an official residence. In theory that is more or less the end of the matter, the Lord Mayor being sole master in his own house. Actually, however, the Corporation meets certain additional charges. Modern development has been in the direction of a freer use of the official residence for meetings of a public and philanthropic nature, and it was felt that it was only fair that the corporation should itself bear a portion of the charges. So that, in addition to the £10,375 granted to the Lord Mayor himself, the Mansion House costs some £20,000 a year. It is common knowledge that the Lord Mayor has to supplement that allowance to a very considerable extent—and the cost is anything from £lO,OOO upward. No figures are published, but it has been said that certain wealthy men have spent, in exceptional years, as much as £60,000. The existing arrangement goes back to 1873, the £lO,OOO allowance being granted in lieu of dues formerly paid to the Mayor.