"ON APPROBATION."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 248, 25 February 1911, Page 9

"ON APPROBATION."

What is known among the betterclass shopkeepers as the "appro, fraud" is greatly on the increase, and is worked extensively at this time of year (says London M.A.P.) It is practised chiefly by the well-to-do who have .sufficient credit with their tradespeople to obtain a quantity of valuable goods on approbation which they have not the slightest intention of buying. At one time this mean fraud was only practised by middle-class persona as a means of temporarily obtaining goods which they either could not afford or did not desire to buy, but nowaday* the trickery is carried on by the smartest people in society, many of whom experience a difficulty in regulating their expenses in accordance with their incomes. At this time of year evening gowns are ordered very extensively on approbation.

For example, a hostess who is entertaining a house party for the New Year, or who is herself a guest at one, does not wish to appear in a gown with which her friends have during the autumn season become familiar. So she orders half-a-dozen model gowns to be sent to her "on appro."; they may not perhaps fit her quite as well «s if they had been made for her, but they answer her purpose well enough, and enable her to avoid the horrible necessity of appearing in a too familiar gown. When the rush of the New Year festivities is over, the gowns are all sent back to the tradesmen, with regrets that they are not quite suitable. Possibly the ladr may retain one or two of the gowns, but she has had, in anv case, the use of half-a-dozen or more for five or six weeks. At this season children's evening dresses are often obtained in this dishonest manner. Last year a well-known lady was sued by a tradesman for half-a-dozen child's evening frocks, which she ordered on approbation a week before Christmas and did not return until the middle of February, when the tradesmen refused to take them back. The lady did not want to go into court, and settled the case by paying for three of the dresses and revenged herself by inducing as many of her friends as she eouldto withdraw their custom from the firm in question. Among other goods the free use of which is obtained by means of the

"appro" fraud are billiard tables, pianos., lamps, various expensive draperies and curtains, and many other valuable articles which people of good position are able to secure for nothing, but which persons of lesser rank would have to buy or bin' if they required them. Tradesmen are powerless to put a stop to this particularly mean type of fraud, for tliey must send {roods out on approbation or lose their best customers. They may refuse to send very valuable goods to a customer who makes a practice of sending them back after having retained them for a long period, but this fvpe of customer takes care not to practise the "appro." fraud on the same tradesman too often. She throws her net far and wide and victimises a number of different tradespeople in turn. The women who practise this fraud, so far from being ashamed of doing so, have no hesitation in boasting about it to their friends.

A lithe while ago a. titled lady was sued bv ». tradesman for the price of a pair of tapestry curtains valued at fifty guineas which she had ordered on approval, and retains for live months.

The tradesman then naturally refused to take them back. He was' able to prove that, the lady had boasted to some f>f her friends that she was getting the use of (he curtains for nothing, and he won his case.

Tt, is an astounding thine that most of the people who think nothing of defrauding shopkeepers are otherwise persons, of marked integrity. Their shady treatment seems to be the result of inherent affeetedness rather than a desire to violate the law.