CORRESPONDENCE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 492, 17 August 1912, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE.

Letters for publication, and articles for insertion, must be accompanied (not necessarily for publication), by the name of the writer, and, provided they are not offensive in any way, _ will be •oublished as space permits. The Editor does lot identify himself with the opinions expressed ly correspondents, and accepts no responsibility or them.] To the Editor. Sir, —I should like somebody with a grip of the matter to let a little light in on the conduct of the Advances to --Settlers Office. It should be called "Settlers to Advance' Office." It seems to be like a goud number of other institutions stated by our late Liberal Government. They sorely require a few plugs of dynamite underneath the miserable affair, just to let a clean, wholesome puff of fresh air through them. For ways that are dark and peculiar they, take the cake, and no looming terror. From the struggling farmer's point of view it seems to be run for anybody and everybody but the farmers. Chairmen, clerks, valuers, they all have a nibble, but the farmer pays through the pores of his precious skin for it all. Can anyone enlighten me why there should be two or . three valuations to every property. Some two years ago the whole of the, Awakino County was valued for the purposes of rating, and, aa the valuer told me also for advance business, but if you put in an application for a loan, j it matters not how large, the difference between assets and liabilities, comes a valuer to make a fresh valua-" tion. This part must be run for friendship's sake. That wouldn't bs so bad if the dark corner in Wellington took the "slightest notice of the valuer's report, which they don't. What they do is this: I have arrived at it by a species of divination hard to explain; but on close enquiry th 9 result is always the same. The board, sits for its uusual nap while the clerks attend to the correspondence bv cutting down all applications by halves and thirds. The*y offer the applicant—it he has real good luck to have placea in his. envelope—half, which in ninety cases in a hundred he must accept. He can get no satisfaction why he ha 3 been insulted; the board is dumb. Of course that would leave it open for a friend to get a choice loan, because if the unfortunates have two thousand invested in a property in capital and labour the office will only lend you, say, three hundred. I know cf a case where a property is valued at over £3OOO, and the board offers £SOO, locking • up about two thousand of the owner's interest as security, which really means for the time the owner must pay on the larger sum indirectly, because it cannot earn anything. Well that, leaves a big asset to lump into the total against choice advances. Of course, this may not be done but the door is open, and some enquiring new Minister may do worse than poke his nose in and see. lam quite sure the settler does not get trie benefit from that institution he should. The man with small capital is sadly deceived by the office. When he toils on the road he is a respected road labourer, and his toil is valued bv the Statu at 10s per day, but when he becomes a leaseholder he is then a ulithering cockatoo, and hia toil is valued at less than one shilling per day. If you doubt this put four or five of your best years on a leasehold, then apply for a loan. Another wonderful and startling thing is their methods of valuing. This is taken from their pamphlet. A security for a loan "first-class" is when the value of the land or the applicants interest therein does not exceed three-quarter of the amount of the loan. The peculiarity lies in "a part from the improvements." Why, apart from the improvements? Another part of the pamphlet stipulates that three-fifths of the lessee's interest in the lease will be loaned. Does anyone know of one case where this has been done. It seems strange that people will try and struggle on under the present monetary system which is simply a monopoly. Nothing, it seems to me, but an internal paper currency "not bank, but State," will furnish the capital for the immense develupment that is taking place. Why its use only will the man who has toiled on the land for years have his labour freed, and used to reproduce itself. —I am, etc. AXIS.