"YEAR OF ANXIETY"

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 24, 28 July 1922, Page 8

"YEAR OF ANXIETY"

THE WORST LEFT BEHIND

LENDERS AND BORROWERS.

Mr. George Shrrtciiffe, who presided at the annual meeting of the Wellington Investment, Trustee, and Agency Company to-day, said : "The year has by no means been free from anxiety) caused' mainly by the sensational collapse of prices for the Dominion's products, which was quickly reflected in a general and substantial drop in the value of rural lands. Interest payments have, on the whole, been surprisingly well met, and, as during the last few months, there has been a steady improvement in the values of most of the exportable products, of the Dominion, it is felt that the worst point of the depression has, been left behind, and that the country is again on the up grade towards a period of sound trading and reasonable prosperity. But the situation still calls for the watchful concern of all classes of the community—producers,, manufacturers, and consumers, and, last, but' by no means least, of the Government itself—to see that working and administrative costs are brought down to the lowest possible point. 'Economy' should be the watchword for the next few years, and all classes of the community should pull together in a determined effort to increase the output of the Dominion's products: with which only can the country pay its way. I suggest that it is very desirable, in order to facilitate a return to normal conditions as early as possible, that—(l) the moratorium on mortgages and deposits should be lifted; (2) a {substantial reduction should be made in the crushing burden of land and income tax, which ia 'at present tending to crush out all business enterprise, and to curtail production of the staple export products of the country. It is rather on the expansion of the latter that the country must rely for the payment of its heavy and increasing liabilities for interest on its loan indebtedness. "At present companies like our own are unable to call in their overdue loans on mortgage, which are now protected by the moratorium until 31st December, 1924, • while, on the other hand), their deposits are only similarly protected for a short period. This is ah anomaly which should be removed, preferably by the lifting of the moratorium on their mortgages, if that is possible:" After referring to the hampering of lending companies by the moratorium, Mir. Shirtcliffe said : "It may be urged that companies such as our own are fully alive to the bona fide difficulties that producer have to face, and are more than willing to consider the convenience of their borrowing clients,1 and extend to them as much assistance as is possible without the compelling force of the moratorium." If, as he believed would be the case, lenders and borrow ers endeavoured to appreciate ths other difficulties until more stable conditions are reached, he felt sure that the period of transition would pass without any more serious troubles than the writing-off by private mortgagees of a portion of the inflated paper profits on their land sales. But an early and very substantial reduction in taxation should be made.

Every possible effort should be made by the Government to further Teduoe its cost of administration to figures that would be relatively approximate to the pre-war level. A good start hass beemi made in that direction, but .further substantial reductions are urgently necessary'if the, country is to make headway towards a condition of stability and genuine prosperity.