The Manawatu Times. SATURDAY, MAY 26, 1877.

Manawatu Times, Volume II, Issue 63, 26 May 1877, Page 2

The Manawatu Times. SATURDAY, MAY 26, 1877.

One of "the causes that has operated materially against the prosperity of this place is the system of credit that prevails, and m the privileges of which everyone seems to consider himself entitled to participate. This is partly the result or an- unhealthy trade competition. Formerly storekeepers m this place competed with each other not so much on the healthful principle of small profits and quick returns as on the very vicious one of trying which could do longest without the returns. The average work-a-day man was less enticed by the offer of cheap goods than by the offer of credit. '^Accordingly while the anomaly existed of everything being extremely 1 dear, and at the same time to be had : at any shop for nothing, this process was. going on. The storekeepers 'were undermining themselves ; they were systematically teaching ignor- ! ant people to be improvident and dishonest, and they were handicapping the reckless spendthrift against the honest mair who was desirous of , paying his. way, since the latter, by paying a high price for his goods, had to recoup the vendor for the losses sustained from, the patronage of i those who didn't pay at "all. Neces- , sarily such a mode 6$ procedure would m time work its own cure, and this it is . now doing-.- Commodities are to be obtained at a reasonable rate, and the credit given m the place is becoming less. Small profits and large credit -are naturally antagonistic; the vendor, cannot afford to sell at a Small advance, and at the same" time lose a large percentage of sale proceeds by bad debts. But, if a bad system of trade is passing away, its effects are more than eVer visible m both seller and buyer ; the former feels the time of adversity bearing heavily on him because he has been subjected to a weakening process all through the time of prosperity, and the latter, having been encouraged m habits of unthriftiness, now feels the check placed upon those habits as a positive wrong to himself. Moreover, it is, m the present depressed state of .the money market, while the storekeeper, becoming alive' .to his own necessities on the one hand is withdrawing trust x from his customers, that on the other hand the ■ customers 'most require that trust ; and the credit system which has for-merly-been used to the "detriment of all concerned, might now be employed' with benefit to the labouring classes did the consequences of former habits not cpme m the way. It is very likely that present "experiences will be a lesson laid to heart by many, and that m the matter of credit giving Paltnerston has seen its worst days. . -If this be so the small t?ade operations of the place will be put on a surer footing, and all classes will, after the initial inconveniences of the change have passed, be the better for it. Some two or three years ago matters financial were so I loose and easy to those who most

profiled, by tlie Public "Works expenditure as to lead them almost to scout the idea of pecuniaiy responsibility. Now the ioud complaints that these persons are making, and the frequent occurrence of their names m connection with old standing liabilities m the Eesident Magistrate's list prove that they" are" reaping the inevitable harvest of improvidence. We cannot but sympathise with those who now find a difficulty m making both ends meet, whatever may have been their former remissness m providing for a rainy day. For we foresee m the coming winter a season of considerable distress. The Karere Road, the Forty Mile Bush road, and the Manawatu bridge works are either completed or m the last stage of completion, and there is no othei' work of importance m immediate prospect. There is therefore a likelihood of the labour market) becoming soon glutted; and this means distress to the labouring class. It is not ttieir application to the storekeeper for temporary credit accommodation during such a period of need that we take exception to; such, is reasonable enough. r Furthermore, m the most prosperous communities there are always individuals who require and should have ; assistance of this kind to bridge over a period of difficulty. The majority of an industrial community, also, receive tlieir money periodically, and . might be supposed reasonably to expect ai\d receive trust "from 1 pay-day to pay-day. All these may come under the normal, conditions of' trade; although, it is/hard to see why the last mentioned persons— those who are m receipt of regular* salaries — could not with a little method adopt the cash system of payment. But what is to be especially objected to is the practice of credit being the rule and cash the exception m the ordinary small trade transactions of this place. This is the reverse of a normal condition of" things, and argues on the part of most of the participators bad management and an insecure status. This system is by many persons carried to such a length that there never comes to them a day of complete settling up with the supplier of tlieir needs. They creep further and further into the books of the latter, who i£ for a long time perforce content-, with- the payment of an occasional small instalment, until m desperation he closes his ledger against them one" after another; and while they seek" to bestow their worthless patronge elsewhere he is striving m the R.M. Court for a -realisation of Ms long deferred hope. Such persons as these, such customers', such patrons are, generally speaking, during no period of their lives m a solvent condition. They are the consumers of luxuries which their means do not entitle" them to. They will live, well whoever has to suffer for it. They form the antitheses of the man who would live on bread and water rather than not pay his way ' through life. It is against these ' persons the tradesman should be on his gaurd, for they are mainly' instrumental m bringing the " credit system m this place to its late abnormal proportions. It may be taken for granted that' when a man. earning weekly wages and not subject > to untoward circumstances of loss creeps- into a tradesman's books to the extent of £20 or £40 he is not very anxious to pay his way, and some one' will sooner or- later suffer from his patronage. 'If he' does not pay £5 atthe end of a month's credit he will probably have neither the will nor the power to pay £30 at the end of six months. It is very likely that the class of persons indicated think, — if they think at all—^that m procuring for themselves a temporary advantage without troubling -how .or when the reckoning ' will be, they at the worst wrong only an individual. Were each human entity to simulate the existence of the solitary' bivalve, having no relation or connection' one with the other, this mode ef thinking would be correct. But human beings massed together m. communities assume collectively the character and functions of a machine, and it is impossible for one of the works 'of a machine to be injured without the •functions of the whole-being more or less impaired. On the same principle every loss inflicted on the commercial class reacts upon the community, and injures m some way or other every individual m it. It is not then for individual or class interests that we offer these remarks, but for the common interests m which every reader is concerned. For as all the busy inmates of the hive suffer from -the presence of the thriftless drones, so, all the members of this community are immediately, or mediately, concerned m the losses accruing from the habits of improvident and unprincipled people. There are now indications of the credit system m Palmerston being brought auider more strict liniita-

tions. Tlie change is indeed taking place, and if it proceeds judiciously, the ultimate effect will be a healthier condition m the financial and social concerns of this couiraunily.