BACK INTEREST

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21085, 9 February 1934, Page 14

BACK INTEREST

TO ias EDITOR or TEiK t'IESS. Sir, —A short time ago I met everywhere sheep fai'mers with solemn faces, crying out for assistance from everyone, on account of low prices, and vigorously expressing the opinion that the mortgagee must share in the losses by letting off interest. In almost every case relief was granted, although in many the recipients were more able to stand the cut than the mortgagees, who are often old people or widows. These people suffered great privations, and were often desperately pressed to make ends meet, but accepted the position in a spirit of "playing the game from a national standpoint. Are these sheep farmers, now that they are getting high prices again, on their side going to "play the game," and repay the man who went without his legal income that the farmers might carry ' on. or are they willing to remain the . recipients of charitable aid for the rest i of their lives? A great many hard and unjust things were said about the mortgagee, who in the future, realising the insecurity of such investment, will "probably want a much higher rate of interest in good times, as he is apparently to get very little in bad. In fact, he will expect to share prolits : as well as losses. No one grudges the farmer good prices, but let him remember the wonderful way the country rallied to his assistance; among other things supplying practically free labour through the Unemployment Fund, largely collected from the city workers, many of whom could ill-afford it. The sheep farmer has shown that he had no confidence in himself or his industry, but recent events prove there was no need for the panic he worked himself into. —Yours, etc., FAIR PLAY. February 8, 1934.