FARMERS IN FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 119, 13 February 1935, Page 8

FARMERS IN FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES

Six Per Cent. Serious

FINDING OF ASSOCIATED BANKS The Associated Banks report that 6.26 per cent, of their farmer customers are known to be in serious financial difficulties, stated Mr. A. O. Hea’ny, secretary of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of New Zealand, yesterday. “On. behalf of my association,” said Mr. Heany, “I recently questioned the accuracy of a public statement by t|ie Minister of. Finance that ‘there were said to be about 50,000 farmers who, if the bankruptcy law applied, would be bankrupt.’ Reasons were given for our view that this statement is very far ‘from correct, and that even the figure of 14.000 applications for relief that have been made under the Mortgagors Relief Act cannot be taken as indicating the actual number of farmer mortgagors who have applied for relief, and who probably number very considerably less than 14,000. Our statement has not been replied to. “My association has since made inquiries from the trading banks, which have obtained from each of their branches statements as to the number of their farmer customers and the position of those farmers. The Associated Banks have now advised my association as follows: — ‘The number of farmers having bank accounts either overdrawn or in credit on January 28, 1935. was 48,519. Of these, bank managers reported that 3039, or 6.26 per cent, of the total, were known to be in serious financial difficulties. These figures account for at least half of the farmers in the Dominion.’ ”

Mr. Heany said that if the proposals of the Government for the rehabilitation of farmers’ finance were based on the belief that there were 50,000 farmers virtually in a state of bankruptcy, then the figures relative to the state of farmers’ bank accounts were of great importance, and their significance should be weighed by the Government, by Parliament and the general public before the enactment of any “panic legislation.”