COMPLAINTS MADE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 187, 21 May 1938, Page 8

COMPLAINTS MADE.

ADJUSTMENT OF MORTGAGES. REPLY BY THE MINISTER. (Per Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. During his visit to the Waitaki electorate and Central Otago, the Minister of Mines (the Hon. P. C. Webb received several complaints from farmers against the decisions of the Mortgage Adjustment Commission. Complaint was general in each of the towns that the Minister has visited so far, the allegation being made that political bias is being shown.

In reply to a question to-day, Mr Webb said that the individual members of the Commission had not been questioned concerning their policies, as the Government did not desire to introduce politics into this important work. He added that the appointments had been made by the Minister of Justice (the Hon. H. G. R. Mason) who had chosen the members because of their qualifications.

The first concern of the Government, added the Minister, was that each case should be considered on its merits, and that the spirit of legislation was given effect to. The public could rest assured that as the Government had been responsible for the legislation it would also see that the administration of the Act would follow the spirit in which it had been passed. He would offer no opinion as to the justice or otherwise of the complaints which had been put before him, and his only comment was that the people best able to judge must be those hearing the evidence.