HELPING FARMERS.
1 DJUSTMENT OF MORTGAGES \ QUESTION OF RELIEF. 1 COMMISSIONER APPOINTED. (By Wire.—Own Correspondent.) Wl Wellington, Last Night. Dairy farmers in the Waikato and Taranaki districts have been asking for relief from some part of the heavy financial burdens that they assumed in the years of high prices and abounding prosperity. Their difficulties were mentioned in Parliament many times during the recent session and the Prime Minister was asked to establish a tribunal before which mortgagors and mortgagees could appear. Mr. Massey made it clear at the time that he could not interfere arbitrarily with private contracts, ’but he undertook to consider the appointment o/ a commission to examine the situation. To-day it was announced that Mr. F. W. Flanaghan (the Valuer-General) had been appointed commissioner to make . the inquiry. Mr. Flanaghan visited the.Waikato district recently at the request of the Prime Minister to see what could be done for distressed mortgagees, and he reported on his return that he had been able to adjust some individual cases where the mortgagees were prepared to make some concessions in consideration of reduced prides of produce and the consequent reduced value of land. Since then the Government has made provision for exempting mortgages' from gift duty on any amount that he may write off his. mortgage as a concession to the mortgagor. The business of the Commissioner will be to make full inquiry iato the situation and prepare a report for the Government.
The farmers who are in trouble now are men who bought* their land in recent at boom prices, and they are not covered by the ordinary moratorium law. They would not be helped very much by an extension of the moratorium, as their need is a reduction of capital values, and interest chargee to meet the conditions of today. The Government would not reduce mortgages compulsorily, even if it had the power, since that would amount to confiscation of part of the mortgagees’ capital, 'but it may provide machinery on the recommendation of the Commissioner for bringing the parties together.
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Taranaki Daily News, 17 February 1922, Page 4
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342HELPING FARMERS. Taranaki Daily News, 17 February 1922, Page 4
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