ATTITUDE OF FARMERS

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21409, 27 February 1935, Page 12

ATTITUDE OF FARMERS

♦ Proposed Mortgage Corporation SHARP EXCHANGE IN THE HOUSE [From Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, February 26. The attitude of the farming community toward the Mortgage Corporation Bill was an issue sharply contested between the Minister for Finance (the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates) and Mr W. J. Poison (C., Stratford) in the House of Representatives to-night. "The farmers would prefer no bill at all, and extension of the powers of the Mortgage Adjustment Commissions, rather than have the shareholder provisions in this bill," said Mr Poison. "They also want the abolition of the personal convenant." Mr Coates: Are you opposing the Mortgage Corporation? Mr Poison: I am saying that in its present form it is not acceptable. The machinery of the corporation would suit well "if its control was in proper hands.

Mr Coates: The Farmers' Union has approved the principle of the bill? Mr Poison: It approves of the machinery. Mr Coates: No, no. It has approved the bill. Mr Poison: It will not stand for shareholder capital. That provision vitiates the whole bill. Mr Coates: You were instructed to vole for the bill. Mr Poison: By whom? Mr Coates: The Farmers' Union. Mr Poison: Nothing of the kind. Mr Coates: I have resolutions to that effect from your own meetings. Mr Poison: I have no recollection of that, and I won't take instructions. I reserve the right to exercise my own judgment in this House. I can show you resolutions opposing this bill. Mr Coates: And 1 can show you others directly contrary to that. Mr Poison: Well, they have not been shown to me. and I think I have the confidence of the farmers as much as you have, although I know you carry a good deal of weight with the farmers. "Will you listen to this?" asked Mr Coates, who proceeded to read a resolution passed at what was described as a large and representative meeting of farmers at Mayfield, commending the bill. Mr Poison: Where is Mayfield? That is a resolution passed at some out of the way place, and it was not a Farmers' Union meeting. Mr Coates: I have some more here. Mr Poison: That was not an executive meeting, ft was a branch meeting in some out of the way community. Some of your friends have been trying to do you a good turn bv putting that through. Mr C. A. Wilkinson (Ind.. Egmont) claimed that he was in touch with as many farmers as any other member of the House, and that all the farmers he had consulted had ' 'ii dissatisfied with the bill. Thev tnought it was not worth having. Unless the next bill brought real relief to the farmer in the shape of reduced interest rates, and written off capital, there would be very bitter and .v. les:p;ead disappointment. Resolutions Quoted Later, Mr Poison returned to the attack, armed with several resolutions which had been passed by meetings of farmers. He said that the national executive of the Farmers' Union had unanimously approved the Mortgage Corporation "so long as it secured a reduction in interest rates to farmers, and so long as il .was under co-opera-tive control, i>r alternatively Slate control, preferably the former." This resolution had been carried by Ihe national executive after hearing the Minisli'r himself.

Mr Poison also qiinlid from resolutions passed by meetings of farmers at Gisborne and at Hawera. The Gisborne resolution disapproved of shareholder capital in the Mortgage Corporation, and congratulated Mr Poison on the stand he had taken. The Hawera resolution expressed a deep sense of disappointment and dismay at the form in which the bill had been presented to Parliament. In reply to Mr Coates, Mr Poison said that he had no two resolutions alike, and that none of them had been prepared previously. They had all been spontaneous and uninspired. The whole organisation of the Farmers' Union had in every case opposed the principle of share capital.

MR VEITCH MAKES A SUGGESTION * .MOTION RI LED OLT OF ORDER [From'Our Parliamentary Reporter.j WELLINGTON. February 26. An attempt to secure an amendment to the Mortgage Corporation of New Zealand Bill by changing its title to "State Advances Amendment Bill" was made by Mr W. A. Veitch find., Wanganui) in the House of Representatives to-night. Mr Veitch said that in his judgment, and in that of many members of the House, all that was necessary to meet the pressing requirements of the farmer could be achieved by a modification of the present law. The public interest would be served by the suggested alteration in title, for then it would be competent for the House to amend other sections to confine the application of the bill to the State Advances Department. If any further legislation were required to reorganise the mortgage business it should not be passed before next session, or until the question was fought out at a general election. The chairman of committees refused to accept the amendment which, in his opinion, was quite foreign to the bill. He suggested that if Mr Veitch wanted to show his dissent to the bill, he should move to report progress, stating his reasons. Several members debated the correctness of the chairman's ruling, and eventually Mr Veitch moved that Mr Speaker's ruling on the chairman's decision should be obtained. The motion was defeated by 37 votes to 26, and the short title of the bill was passed almost immediately afterwards.