The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday Morning. Tuesday, October 8, 1889. THE CREDIT SYSTEM.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 361, 8 October 1889, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday Morning.

Tuesday, October 8, 1889. THE CREDIT SYSTEM.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’at at be thy country’s, Thy God’s, and truth’s.

The credit system has had such damaging results in Gisborne as in other places that the experience of a city where there has been a strong attempt to suppress it ought to be useful as a lesson. In Wellington this has been done, and a journal published in that city remarks ;— “ Some few months ago, it is alleged, a conference of wholesale merchants took place, at which it was decided that a general modified system of commerce should be arranged, fixing a limitation of credit to the retail storekeepers, and in view of which it was decided that three months’ credit all round would be the most advantageous terms to both parties, and that the existing custom of giving four and five months’ should be discontinued, as such terms very often lead to overbuying and over-speculating. It appears the retail trade made no objection to this innovation, regarding it as a safety-valve to trade that might result beneficially to both parties. This course having been determined on, all late purchases have been made on these conditions.”

The same journal then proceeds to show how advantageous this arrangement has been, it being claimed that the retail trade of Wellington is the soundest of any city in the colony. When the merchants and retail traders mutually agree in this way there is not much difficulty in reducing the abnormal proportions to which the credit sytem has grown. There is no doubt if the present system of giving credit could be almost abolished, all parties would be better off in the long run, and there would not be such an opportunity as is now afforded for dishonest people to obtain what they have no intention to pay for. There is, unfortunately, not much hope of the example set by Wellington being generally followed throughout the colony, but things appear to be shaping themselves in that direction. The persons who pay for their goods have long enough been taxed on account of the bad debts inflicted upon some tradesmen, and any mitigation of the evil will be cheerfully welcomed.