The many critics of the inadequate protection afforded to consumers by the Hire-Purchase Act, 1938, as amended by the Hire-Purchase Act, 1954, have much to be grateful for in the Hire-Purchase Act, 1964, which received the Royal Assent on July 16, 1964, and became operative on January 1, 1965. Those who were cast down by the rejection, in the Final Report of the (Molony) Committee on Consumer Protection, of suggestions for more fundamental reforms which would replace hire-purchase by something less conceptually misleading, such as the chattel mortgage, may still hope; for it is believed that the deeper study promised before the change of Government in October 1964 still continues.