RURAL MORTGAGES

Shannon News, 9 March 1928, Page 4

RURAL MORTGAGES

♦ ' STATEMENT BY MR McLEOD. Reference to the mortgage position of rural lands in New Zealand ,was .made by the Hon. A. p. McLeod, Minister of Lands, at Te Awamutu last week. x Previously, the Minister said, he had spoken about the position, but that speech had been responsible for a controversy which had arisen largely from the fact that the report which , l was necessarily condensed, did not give a clear indication of his views. (Briefly, the point he attempted to make was that to his own knowledge a great proportion of mortgages were being placed upon a fairly sound basis by adjustments of all kinds and ' by advances made by the Government and other lending institutions and that with reasonable stability in produce values for some years the position would be satisfactory. He said, however,' that there were a certain number of mortgages, mostly unpaid balances, owing to the original vendors which it appeared almost impossible to clear up. As an instance, he cited cases where purchasers had given mortgages of, say £4OOO on properties which under any system of Government valuation on a productive or prospective basis did not show more than perhaps £3OOO valuation. If the mortgagee stood firm in exercising his undoubted rights and refused to make a concession, only one of two courses was open, either that the mortgagee foreqlosc or that some form of rural bank find money for the purchase of the mortgage for which reasonable security did not exist. To asist such cases the Government maintained for years a moratorium to the prejudice of many thousands who wished to borrow and who had ample security. It was upon the requirements of those who were unfortunately in difficulties regarding their unpaid balances that the Country Party was playing by saying that if representatives of that party were elected to Parliament they would get them out of their troubles. He believed that he -was safe in saying that there are few who would subscribe to a suggestion that Parliament should pass a law breaking a legal and binding contract without the consent of the parties thereto.