FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 1908. TIME PAYMENT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9320, 21 August 1908, Page 2

FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 1908. TIME PAYMENT.

The time-payment system is, after all, only a branch of the credit system, but it is a branch which has many objectionable features and is much moro widely employed than people imagine. Otago, with its dredging boom, had a notablo experience of this some years ago, and the confidence ■with which even the office-boy earning his five shillings a week undertook to pay. a shilling a fiharo on application and a shilling a share on allotment with calls of not more than 2s a share at intervals of not le"ss than one month on so many £1 shares in almost any wild-cat scheme, was simply typical , of the attitude of the- peoj^e in their anxiety to get their feet firmly planted on the royal road to wealth. It is the easiness of the introduction which makes the time-payment system so alluring, and wo have only to recall the history of the Picturesque Atlas of Australasia or that of the Encyclopaedia of New Zealand to realise how hastily people rush into a contract which subsequently becomes & burden. In defiance of the proverb it is not the first steps that counts, but the feet become very leaden before the journey is completed. The time-payment system, in fact, is a standing temptation to those not well endowed with this world's goods to undertake the burden of unnecessary responsibilities in order that they may surround themselves with luxuries which they would never dream of purchasing were their acquirement not made easy. There would be fewer pianos in two-roomed cottages and -fewer shelves of xtndusted books if the system were abolished. As a side route to the workhouse this system is unequalled., as our charitable aid institutions could testify. As an instance in point the '"Post" quotes a meeting of the Ohiro Old Men's Home Committee, where an application for relief was made to the Benevolent Trustees on behalf of a man and his wife. It was reported that they .sold their belongings when leaving Auckland, and that at Hastings they spent the profeeeds in furnishing a house, somewhat lavishly, on time-pay-ment. When they left that town they forfeited their deposit, and they were "down upon their luck" in Wellington, but hopeful for better times. Cases of this sort could be multiplied a hundredfold, though, perhaps, not in quite such an irresponsible form. Of course, there are cases where the system when properly used is a•• great convenience, but the payments demanded are far too often grossly in excess of the benefits conferred. And in hanging this particular millstone round their necks people are apt to forget that by adopting the system they are paying not only the value of the article purchased, but heavy interest on the unpaid money and a generous margin for covering "risk." The risk, however, in the majority of cases, appears to rest with the purchaser rather than with the seller. The system would not be so objectionable if the Legislature would provide that no time-payment should exceed a certain proportion of the weekly earnings of the purchaser, and that the payment should vary as the earnings vary. Provision for the repayment of a proper proportion of the amount paid before a contract . was voided should also be made. With a few safeguards such as these the system would be a good deal more restricted, but at the same time it would become moro legitimate. At present it k simply a temptation to folly.