'A onntivat charge has been brought against a Chinese compradore in the Hongkong Police Court, which forms a notable instance of the dangers which may and do attach to the faulty system of collecting accounts so generally in vogue throughout the open ports as well as at Hongkong. Mr. Bell, the manager of the Daily Press, hands to his compra-dare or shroff, at the beginning of each month, a batch of accounts for collection, These accounts are receipted, but the compradore's returns are trifling in comparison with the amount of the bills entrusted to him. Being taxed with laziness (for apparently he was not pected of dishonesty) the compradore offers a variety of plausible excuses, In the case which was made more especially the ground of the charge, he attributed the delay to the illness of the debtor; in others, he reported that be had left the bills for endorsement while the prosecution now allege that the bills had been duly paid on presentation, but that their amounts have been retained by the compradore for his own use, As a natural consequence, under such circumstances, a creditor thinks his constituents dilatory, neglectful, and lacking that regularity and prompt. titude which ought to distinguish men of business. The status and oredit of the latter suffer for a time, until matters have arrived at such a pose that explanation is sought. Of course, we do not comment on the case with any intention of prejudging the compra-dere's position, but simply because the charge is an illustration of the defects of the present system—a system under which we ourselves, and we doubt not many of our readers whose business involves the collection of numerous small amounts, have from time to time been made to suffer serious loss. The practice which opens up such tempting opportunities to Chinese collectors is that of endorsing the bills for payment by the compradore, a convenient arrangement doubtless for the payer, but which all experience has shown to be a very insecure one for the payee. It may be claimed that a caveat creditor principle should apply to any one who lets a receipted bill out of his
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.