FARM MORTGAGES

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21464, 4 May 1935, Page 8

FARM MORTGAGES

PROCEDURE FOR DEBT ADJUSTMENT EXPLANATORY STATEMENT An explanation of the object and scope of the Rural Mortgagors Final Adjustment Act has been issued in' booklet form by the Government printer under the authority of the Minister for Justice (the Hon. J. G. Cobbe). The act came into operation on Wednesday, May 1. The booklet has ' been framed mainly for the guidance of officers of the Department of Justice. It sets out the reasons for the legislation and explains its various provisions. Speaking of the importance of the work that lies ahead of the Court of Review under the Rural Mortgagors Final Adjustment Act, and of the position now of cases which came within the scope of the Mortgagors and Tenants Relief Act, 1933, Mr Cobbe said that the latter act (Mortgagors Relief) would still continue in full force and effect. All mortgagors and lessees who were previously protected by that act would still be protected; but once an application by a farmer mortgagor for an adjustment of his liabilities was tiled under the new act, that mortgagor was immediately taken out of the protection afforded by Ihe Mortgagors and Tenants Relief Act and brought tinder the protection of the new act. Procedure to be Followed "Jurisdiction under file new act," Mr Cobbe said, "is confined exclusively to the Court of Review, and to the existing adjustment commissions, the latter being subject to the general jurisdiction of that court. Neither the Supreme Court nor the Magistrate's Court has any jurisdiction under the new act. On the other | hand, the Court of Review has at present no jurisdiction under the Mortgagors and Tenants Relief Act, and in the meantime the Supremo Court and magistrates will continue to deal with applications under that act. Provision, however, is made in the new act for the Governor-General to transfer at any time to the Court of Review all or any of the functions of the Supreme Court or Magistrate's Court under the Mortgagors and Tenants Relief Act. 1 am unable at present to say if advantage will be taken of this'provision." Mr Cobbe said that for the purposes of the Rural Mortgagors Final Adjustment Act a registry of the Court of Review had been established at each of the following nlaees, the registrar of the Supreme Court or clerk of the Magistrate's Court fas the case mav be) having been appointed registrar of the Court of Review:—Kaitaia, Kaikolie, Dargaville, Whangarei, ' Auckland. Pukekohe, Thames, Te Aroha Hamilton, Rotorua, Te Kuiti Taumaruruh, Whakatane, Gisborne! Napier Hastings. Dannevirke, New Plymouth' ' Stratford. Hawera, Taihapc, Wanga- | nui, Feiiding, Palmersion North Levin ! Pahiatau, Masterton. Wellington. Blen- I heirn. Nelson, Westport, Grevmouth, Rangiora. Christchurch. A.shburton. Timaru, Wairnate, Gamarti Cromwell Duncdin. Lalclutha, Gore, InvercargilL I'iliiip of Applications j Forms of application for adjustment oi a mortgagor's liabilities have been j distributed to every magistrate's court for the convenience of intending ap- j pile-ants-. The application must be filed ! with a registrar of the Court of Re- i view, by whom it will subsequently be > referred to an adjustment commission, which, in turn, is required to call a meeting of the mortgagor and all his creditors with a view to effecting a voluntary adjustment of the mortgagor's liabilities. It is understood thai the Court of Review will be fully functioning n e-t week. Mr Cobbe said no definite decision had been come to where the j court would first si). There was much I work ahead of the court, particularly 1 m the farming centres, and it wamore than likely tlr.it r; ; rly «:i||ii»"s woulu be held at Wanganui. Palmer;., j tort North, and Wellington, where work ' was accumulating. The actual head- I quarters of the court would he at Wei- < ingloii, but the court, „f course, would ! be itinerant. Where convenient sitl tmgs would be held in the Supreme Court, and m centres where there was no Supreme Court building and in which it was found necessary to hold .-Utings, other suitable accommodation would be arranged. - tol '"'' oU "