DEBTS AND VALUES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 285, 1 December 1932, Page 23

DEBTS AND VALUES.

To the man In the street the attitude of the daily papers on the "Debt to America" question provides the most glaring demonstration of inconsistency placed before the public for some time. Remembering the volume of protest, led and fostered by most of our papers, when a mere 20 per cent cut in interest was mooted, one wonders what wail of anguish would ascend to heaven if moneylenders and mortgagees were asked to forgo their principal and bear equal sacrifice to those who have seen their whole equities disappear. Certain it is that expressions like "sanctity of contract," "holy" or "Divine," would not be nearly strong enough to describe the contracts which they hold. If the papers would lead a campaign to have the whole of New Zealand revalued, and then ask the mortgagees to cut down the mortgage in proportion to the fall in value (probably 40 per cent), it would be concrete proof that such, papers have the good of the people at heart, and would give them the right to support a reduction in external indebtedness. • F.A.G.