A SOCIAL MORATORIUM

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 24, 29 January 1929, Page 14

A SOCIAL MORATORIUM

Melbourne merchants express satisfaction at the fact that the statute applying moratorium conditions to about a third of the area of Victoria will expire on 28th February. One effect of the Act has been a postponement of payment _by debtors resident within the area. Such postponements have been of considerable extent, and the fear is that some time will elapse before an adjustment can be made of a number of accounts. On the whole manufacturers and wholesalers do not look for serious difficulties,■although they know that in some directions traders have on Ist March to face an accumulation ot financial responsibility. The improved harvest prospects in the districts affected are encouraging, and it is hoped that a good crop ■vyill enable adjustments to bo carried through fairly satisfactorily. The opinion is expressed that a renewal of the moratorium would have led to the development of a serious position, and that there would probably have been a call for an extension to others parts of Victoria, as on the,b"order lines of the moratorium area a complicated position existed. Financial organisations and merchants rendered reasonable accommodation to ■ traders and others within the moratorium area, and the ' expiry of the statute is expected to bo followed by a revival of confidence in trading circles.