"BAD TO WORSE"

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 84, 6 October 1933, Page 12

"BAD TO WORSE"

FARMERS' CONDITION

FREEING THE LANDS

SOHE3IE PKOPOUNDED

The .necessity for immediate action to rehabilitate the farming community was emphasised by Mr. C. A. Wilkin- ,. son (Independent, Ugmont) in tho y House of Representatives yesterday ' afternoon. Mr. Wilkinson claimed that j the steps taken by the Government to \. assist farmers had failed, and he pro■j pounded a scheme which he said would bring about the freeing of the frozen x mortgage assets. '• The Government had tried to relieve ? the condition of the farmers by three n systems, he said. In the first place j the Government had provided for iuterb est reductions, but it was a very bee lated measure and had been forced upon '" the Government by public opinion ;. after the Government had declared t against it after the ID3I election. Then f there was the Mortgagors' Selief Act, i and the raising of tho rate of exchange. "The whole three measures t have not done the job," said Mr. Wilkinson. Thousands of 'farmers were in as bad a condition today as they were at the. beginning, and the poorest class | of farmer had not becen relieved to ;, anything like the extent ho should ■- have beeu. The condition of tho far--1 mei'S was going from bad to worse. In January, the Minister of Lands had stated that arrears of rent and interest in State lending departments amounted - to £3,474,000. "I venture to predict that today the total arrears of all Government lending departments and the Lands Department are not less than £10,000,000," he said. A very small proportion would be represented by the loss of principal. MORTGAGORS' RELIEF. Criticising the relief given to mortgagors, Mr- Wilkinson quoted the case. of a small dairy farmer who had been forced to reduce his life insurance premiums by a heavy amount and who had been told that he had to find £651 before December 22. That was tho position, without any living expenses having been taken into consideration. "Is the scheme of relief to mortgagors any usewhen we have cases of that kind?" he asked. He alf o quoted another case of a dairy farmer who worked from daylight to dark, including Sundays, and who "was living on £1 a week. The Public Trustee had stated that unless the; whole of the'arrears of interest owing under the first mortgage were paid within fourteen days or satisfactory arrangements made.for their discharge and the payment of current interest by an order on the milk cheques, the mortgage, would be. immediately called up. ; „ Mr. W. E. Parry (Labour, Auckland Central): That is the usual thing for all workers. Mr. H. :G. Dickie (Government, Patea): What happened? ... Mr. Wilkinson: The fourteen Says aie not up. Mr. Dickie: Has he applied for relief? Mr. Wilkinson: What's the use, when his neighbour applied for Tehef and got it in the manner I just indif cated. . A Government member; Every ease on its merits. Mr. Dickie: He has not been to the Commission. Mr; Wilkinson said that the country could" mot go on very much- longer unless substantial, relief were giVen. The question bad fo be tackled ia,;a bigger and broader way. He had put up a scheme to farmers, and while- they;were not absolutely enthusiastic abou^ ;it, they thought there might be something in it. .. >■:• ■■!■■.-.■. ..' :-'"' He proposed that all farm lands in New Zealand, should be entirely freed from mortgage liability both of capital and interest, and that no mortgage liability should be allowed on farm lands. In view, of the freeing of lands from mortgage debt, all farm lands over and above, what was * considered a reasonable area should be resumed by the State, without payment, for- further settlement purposes; land thus resumed by the Crown should be acquired on the basis of the reduction made by the abolition of the mortgage debt on the land. DRASTIC STEPS. Those drastic steps, he considered, would place the primary producers m a position to compete with any country in the world, and would do more to rehabilitate the country than1 any other proposal yet suggested. The main feature of the scheme was that he proposed to bring land and money values into line with production values. After arriving at the true value of mortgages, interest payments could be made on a 3 per cent, basis, ana provision made for fluctuations up or down on an index system according to export values. As far as procedure was concerned, he proposed that all existing farm mortgages should be reduced in value commensurate with 6 . present-day export prices. All farm mortgage contracts made before September 30, 1929, and still outstanding, should have their value based on the average oi export prices from September 30, 1925, to September 30, 1929, and should be reduced proportionately according to export values existing between October 1, 1929, and March 31,1933. All outstanding mortgages on farm lands entered ■ into between October 1, 1929,, and September 30, 1930, should be calculated in- a similar manner, as previously mentioned, and in tho subsequent separate years up to the coming into operation of legislative measures dealing with the question. ' • . ■ He proposed that the State should take over tho whole of the liability under the mortgages as adjusted, by issuing State bonds payable to bearer and saleable on the stock exchanges. He estimated that the liability would not exceed £200,000,000, possibly considerably less, which would entail a burden of interest payments not exceeding £6,000,000 per annum. To provide funds for the payment of that annual amount.ho proposed to impose an income tax upon the net profit of all farmers; or a sales tax upon all produce or stock sold off the farms; or an income tax on the gross receipts from farms; the balance (if any) to be made up by general taxation. By the adoption of such i proposals there would be brought about the freeing of the frozen mortgage assets.