INTEREST AND RENTS

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 29, 28 October 1932, Page 13

INTEREST AND RENTS

Criticism of Legislation “ILL-ADVISED, HARMFUL” Dominion Special Service. Auckland, Oct. 27. Mortgage legislation was referred to by Mr. W. R. Wilson, acting-chairman of the South British Insurance Company, who presided at the annual meeting of the Guardian Trust Company, Auckland, to-day. “Reference was made last year, ’ he said, “to legislation which iu our opinion is ill-advised, and the harmful results of which have been demonstrated. That an adjustment between mortgagors and mortgagees, and between landlords and. tenants, was in mauy cases called for, is not to be denied; but it was, and would have continued to he, the exception for advantage to be taken of the difficulties arising out of the adverse conditions at present ruling., “The spirit of mutual regard for the other's interests aroused iu a time of general stress led to concessions being made according to the circumstances of each case, and amounting iu some instances to more than the reductions fixed by statute. Legislation not merely stifled this spirit, but has led to a demoralising disrespect for a contractual obligation. “It was scarcely an exaggeration when a leading legal authority recently stated that a generation is growing up which understands a mortgage to be a document signed by a mortgagor containing an implied covenant by the mortgagee agreeing to a moratorium.”