USURY BURDEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 128, 1 June 1936, Page 9

USURY BURDEN.

"A CARDINAL SIN." GREAT NEED FOR IDEALS. RUSSIAN INTEREST RATES. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Saturday. The view that in tlfese days ideals were needed above all things was expressed by Mr. C. M. Williams (Government, Kaiapoi), in speaking in the soeoncl reading deliate on the State Advances Corporation Bill in the House of Representatives. The visionary, who was not considered a sensible man, said Mr. Williams, rarely said a thing could not be done. "In my short life," he added. "I have seen many things done that people said could not be done. I was the first man in North Canterbury to put in a milking machine, and many of my friends said, 'It can't be done.' When milking machines were first talked about, plenty of people said, 'It can't be done.' And I remember the time when anybody who mentioned a flying machine heavier than air was told by the majority of people that it could not be done. So that, if this is the strongest criticism the Opposition can level against this bill, I think we can safely conclude that there is very little wrong with it." Speaking of ideals, Mr. Williams said that if it was considered an impossible ideal that the burden of usury should be removed from the human race, then he would say it was an ideal that the idealists ever since the dawn of history had been following. AH Christian churches in the past—and most other religions, too —had made usury one of the cardinal sine. Principle of Usury. "It is not an accident that the human race always revolted against the principle of usury," said Mr. Williams. Mr. R. A. Wright (Independent, Wellington Suburbs): What is usury? Mr. Wiliams retorted that Mr. Wright knew all right. The church in ancient times made no distinction between one form of interest and another. Interest in the past was always looked upon as usury, and it was prohibited to Christians in the Middle Ages to take usury. "That is how the Jews got in on it," he added. "It was prohibited to the Jews to take usury from one another, but they were allowed to spoil the Egyptians and they were allowed to charge interest to the Gentiles. That is how the Jews got control of the money markets of the world." Mr. Williams said he would admit that there was a case for the charging of in- | terest, but the whole aim of the idealist of the world —of those who were trying to raise up the human race to a higher level —had been towards the abolition of usury. If they could not abolish interest and usury altogether, they could at any rate reduce the burden of it. The Bill would give to the Government power to reduce that burden of interest which had been the greatest burden the country had had to bear in the past. Russia's Example. Later in his speech, Mr. Williams referred to what was being done in Russia. The State Bank there, lie said, varied its rates of interest according to the objects of the loans granted, and he thought that was a policy that could well be followed in New Zealand. In Russia, advances to industry for the purchase of raw material bore a high rate of interest, because the State did not wish to encourage speculation, but for long-term capital investment, such as the building of houses or for public utilities, the State Bank advanced money free of interest in some cases, and in all other cases at a low rate. . Past Governments in New Zealand, , said Mr. Williams, had been only forced ! into State enterprise against their will, . and what a man did against his will he usually did badly. The present Govern- , ment was going in for public enterprise . because it believed that public enterprise ; was superior to private enterprise.