The Mortgage Corporation and Rates

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21399, 15 February 1935, Page 10

The Mortgage Corporation and Rates

At a meeting held a month ago between the Minister for Finance and his staff and representatives of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce the Minister was questioned concerning the liability of mortgages held by the proposed National Mortgage Corporation for local body rates. Mr Coates announced very definitely that "the corporation would have "no privileges whatever not en- " joyed by the ordinary lender." When the matter was raised again recently by local body representatives we suggested that the Minister may not have understood the full implication of his answer, which was that no mortgage held by the corporation would enjoy any immunity from local body rates. An examination of the full text of the bill shows clearly that this is not the case and that all Crown mortgages transferred to the corporation will continue to enjoy immunity from rates. It is only in respect of fresh mortgage business that the corporation will be on the same footing as private lenders. The Minister's statement was therefore misleading to the extent-that it may have led some local bodies to suppose that the establishment of the corporation would put an end to the rating immunity of a large class of Crown mortgages. Ultimately, of course, the establishment of the corporation will have this effect. For the present it merely makes an anomaly seem more absurd.