The Crown and Mortgagor’s Relief

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 170, 14 April 1932, Page 9

The Crown and Mortgagor’s Relief

Si r —it is amazing that while the Parliamentary heads of the Government are imploring and compelling private mortgagees to postpone principa , reduce interest, keep the farmer on the land, and assist production, the lending departments are enforcing not only full interest on advances, but substantial payments ot Pr j I had occasion to examine a dairy farmer’s accounts the other day, and loun 1 his cash in hand was under, £o, and ht had no provision for the winter except the miserable cheques to become due iu April and May, and the bonus in A.u=uM (less one-third for the lending depart went). The department for the, whole m the season has been helping itself terms of its securities to one-thiro of lie cheques and apparently intends to con tinue to do so. By that means his nterest has been paid in full and his pru eipal reduced by about 5 per cent., but lie has bought, only a fourth of the manure he required, and had given up ing. His farm was capab eof improv meut, hut not a penny could be . s P ea £. < :? that; bis fences had been repaired witl Xnd-hand wire; his herd has increased since tbe security was given, and there was ample security for t , he J ad '' asked why he did not apply to the depart ment for a reduction of the payments, and he replied, "What’s the use? -I signed for a third, and they dont care that production is down 20 per cent., and prices down 35 per cent, since he bai gain was made. X asked them money for manure, and they said he would have to assign 40 per cent, of hie chetiue. If I have to do that the familj will starve. I can get through the winter bv running up accounts at the stores and borrowing on my bonus but 1 c-™ 1 more than buy food. And it will be the middle of next season before I am anjwhere near square with the storekeeper and tlie factory. If I worry them they will discover that five or six years ago I broke one of the 35 clauses in my security or the 20 clauses in my lease, and wilt make me pay for that.” I am informed that this is not an isolated case, and that in some cases as much as one-half of the milk cheque goes to the Crown. Surely it is more important that farms should be properly manured and production kept up than that these settlers should be compelled to‘pav off principal this year. Most .mortgagee’s are thankful to receive their interest nowadays.—l am. etc.. A BUSINESS MAN.