MENACE OF LOANS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 744, 17 August 1929, Page 6

MENACE OF LOANS

ADVANCES TO SETTLERS CONDEMNED INTEREST AND LAND PRICES Press Association DUNEDIN. Friday. In the course of an address to the Farmers’ Union, Mr. James Btgg stated that money for land purchase or for lifting or replacing mortgages was absolutely sterile, but money f or improvement of production would be of immense benefit. The activities of the Advances to Settlers Department had at first acted as a stimulant, but the effect had long passed and the Act was not now benefiting the farming industry, though it had enriched manv thousand individuals. New settlement today was more difficult than at any previous time, and the high land prices more than offset any reduction in interest. There was an almost constant relation between interest and land prices, and even if the Government could lend to farmers a: 2£ per cent, the benefits would disappear in increased land prices, so that settlement would become Impossible because of the large amount of money a new settler would require. J Dealing also with such concessions as free railage on lime, Mr. Begg sai<i that these were really gifts sold at full market value and included in the purchase price.