MORTGAGE BILL

Evening Star, Issue 22442, 12 September 1936, Page 11

MORTGAGE BILL

SAVING FARMER FROM HARSH BUDGET SYSTEM [From Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, September 11. The criticism of the Mortgagors’ and Lessees’ Rehabilitation Bill during its second reading progress in the House of Representatives was not severe, although Opposition speakers did not share the optimism of Government members regarding its result; nor did they forget to remind the House of their Unfair effect on many persons who had invested money in mortgages. “ The Bill is not designed to take anything which the mortgagee possesses,” retorted the Attorney-General, “ but is designed really to register the loss he had already incurred.” The Minister argued that the great value of the new legislation was that it would enable the mortgagor, without waiting five years, to know where he stood. He was not anxious to detract from efforts already made to adjust the problem. The Adjustment Committees, a necessary part of the machinery, had done good work, most of them particularly good work. In fact, he wished to say that most of the members patriotically devoted themselves to a very difficult task. The budgeting system, which was being superseded, presented the most insuperable difficulty, and it had acquired unpopularity through the harshness with which it was operated by certain companies. “It was operated with such severity,” declared the Minister, “ that it was far harder for a farmer to find the price of a packet of cigarettes than for a man oh the No. 5 relief schemes. So the farmers looked on it with hatred and fear.” He thought far more people would cry out than would be hurt by the new legislation. So disinclined were farmers to take advantage of the old law, with its five-year budgetary period, that out of 1,678 applications made for relief under its provisions, 848 were made during the final month, last April. Thus more than half the farmers who thought they might need relief were not disposed to rush budgetary control, but hung off until the period for application had almost expired. These figures, he suggested, were eloquent of this attitude.