"STRATFORD EVENING POST" MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 1929. CASH ORDER TRADING.

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 82, 12 August 1929, Page 4

"STRATFORD EVENING POST" MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 1929. CASH ORDER TRADING.

WHILE eveiy effort to secure fair trading in the community is commendable, it is doubtful whether the report and recommendations of the Minister of Industries and Commerce (Hon, I. Gr. Cobbe) and the secretary of the department (Mr J. Collins) will do much to correct the evils associated with the cash-order trading system, says the Otago Times. The system adds to the cost of commodities required by people who cannot be accommodated by those who handle those commodities as a business. Therefore it imposes an additional burden on that class of purchaser. It is also alleged that some of the practices associated with cash-order trading are undesirable, and that in certain cases those conducting the business are not above becoming parties to surreptitious purchases by wives in opposition to the desires of judgment of their husbands. The system is also condemned as prejudicial to the genuine cash buyer, traders being' represented as giving this class of purchase very little consideration. It has been generally supposed that the cash buyer was the most valued customer, one whom the trader was always pleased to welcome. The report appears to be a peculiar mixture of strength and weakness. The committee of inquiry condemns several aspects of the cash-order system, and makes eight definite, recommendations. Several of these will have the effect of introducing far-reaching reforms in the methods practised by some of the companies, and we may assume thev would not have been made if they had been considered unnecessary. Do woven, if the cnuTnanms ano individuals coneerucd will express their willingness to accent, th n nronosaE, legislations •svi 11 not he Introduced to make the m'onosals nmndat n rv. ft ( mav b(> assumed tlpif, the und j Amble rn“> r I lees b°ve to. be nrotUohrt, and the Donorl-j rnoil| of Tiidnsiru'S plld fon'-j ■rnerce will find that on pffir-° j ' +0 Cmi t o fhr> j fee's proposals may not be per-1 manenti