WATCHING VALUES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 107, 7 May 1943, Page 2

WATCHING VALUES

EX-SOLDIERS' LOANS REHABILITATION CONTROL "No payment must be considered too high and no service too great in our sincere endeavour to discharge the debt we owe to the members of the fighting services," said the chairman of the Auckland Rehabilitation Committee, Mr. F. Hackett, in an interview this morning. All requests for renabilitation, either in employment or in applications for financial assistance, such as loans, were dealt with by the committee, or by a sub-committee set up for the purpose, and all returned men needing help or advice were welcomed by the officers of the division.

In the event of an application for a loan being considered unsound, it is brought before the committee, which, after hearing the applicant and the valuers of the Department, makes its recommendation. While the State Advances Department receives loan applications, assesses values, and makes recommendations, the Rehabilitation Board has the final say. Mr. Hackett remarked that in numerous cases the assets were so sound that the granting of a loan was achieved with a minimum of delav, but in "border line cases" the committee invariably favoured the applicant, so much so that the Auckland committee had not yet failed to recommend the granting of any loans it has been asked to adjudicate upon. "The committee, however, will not allow an applicant to harness himself with an impossible debt, and will not be a medium through which land or property will exchange hands at a false value, added Mr. Hackett. "It will also see that returned men are not exploited by the few who may think they see in rehabilitation an opportunity to unload properties at highly inflated values."