MOSES AND THE MORATORIUM

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 112, 7 November 1935, Page 8

MOSES AND THE MORATORIUM

"The' cant cry of sanctity of contract" was criticised by Mr. T. J. Fleming, National Government candidate for Roskill in terms which are typical of the loose thinking that is now widely prevalent. The State, he said, had always reserved to itself the right in the interests of the majority to interfere with contracts which were unjust and impossible of performance. That is quite so, but State interference has been confined to agreements that are "harsh and unconscionable." If all the contracts upset by. the recent legislation were of this "kind they could have been dealt with by the normal powers of the law. That they were not is shown by the fact that special laws had to be made to revise contracts, not. after careful investigation of each case, but in the mass. Mr. Fleming also cited the Mosaic law providing for release from debt in the seventh year. But this sets no precedent for the acts of the twentyfourth Parliament of New Zealand. The seventh-year release from debt and the fiftielh-year return of land were established laws and governed lending and land-selling transactions. It was specifically stated: "According to the number of years after the jubile thou shalt buy of thy neighbour." In other words the land was bought in full knowledge that it could be retained only for a calculated term —it was a limited lease. We may assume that the same condition governed lending and a loan was made only if there were a reasonable prospect of its being repaid before the year of release. This assumption is supported by the injunction given that, if a man were poor, he should not be refused help because the year of release* was at hand. To apply these customs where there has previously been free borrowing and selling is one-sided and unjust. There are Undoubtedly weighty arguments in favour of the year of release and the jubilee; but if they are accepted many of our present established customs must be changed, including the freehold and the long-term mortgage. The borrower cannot have it both ways.