HIRE-PURCHASE SYSTEM

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1078, 16 September 1930, Page 10

HIRE-PURCHASE SYSTEM

ADVERTISING CLUB DISCUSSION

The evils of the hire-purchase system were given full discussion at the Auckland Advertising Club’s luncheon today. Mr.'Teale presided. Associated with Mr. Teale were Messrs. Malcolm Stewart and A. G. Lunn, of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce. Prior to the opening of the discussion on the question of hire-pur-chase, Mr. Stewart, as president of the Auckland Chambei* of Commerce, referred to the pending merger of the Advertising Club with the Chamber of Commerce. He stated that the advertising group should become a very powerful factor in the Chamber of Commerce. Mr. L. A. Eady said that the acid test of the hire-purchase system was as to ffiew much the buyer was justified in mortgaging future income. Even the leading authorities and economists who favoured the system qualified their statements and admitted that there were obvious excesses. The system was justifiable where the articles purchased could be classed under the head of reproductive necessities. The hir.e-purchase system was sound when carried out on proper lines. Mr. K. Kitchener spoke of the hardship involved in many cases when the seller stepped in and took the goods back, often after the biggest part of the purchase money had been paid over.

Mr. F. G. Baskett stated that in many instances the hire-purchase system induced people to purchase commodities which they could not afford.

That buyers who were compelled to default in their payments after the greater part of their purchase money had been paid should have some protection as well as the seller wars stressed by Mr. S. Takle.

Mr. A. G. Lunn contended that the hire-purchase system was one of the greatest drawbacks to thrift. In a spirited defence of the system, Mr. Robert Laidlaw admitted that it had defects, but he contended that like in all other classes of trading, these defects would be remedied as a result of competitive trading. The system had justified itself in many ways.