MONEYLENDERS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 8 August 1924, Page 5

MONEYLENDERS.

A WORD IN DEFENCE. (BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION.) WELLINGTON,. Aug. 7. Defence of the mortgagee and a warning that if the attack upon the moneylender was persisted in it might seriously affect the credit and finances of the country were made by Mr R. A Wright in the House ’to-night. “We are told,” said Mr 'Wright, “that the mortgagee is a man who is inflicting dire punishment on the small farmer. It is a very unpleasant thing to have mortgages, and I have had many mortgages and know how very painful it is, but there are very, many people in New Zealand who would never have been anything else but workers if it had not been for the mortgagee. Therefore, I fail to grasp the meaning of this attack upon mortgagees, unless it is with the avowed object of endeavouring to capture the vote of the small farmer by. telling him that the mortgagee is destroying his rights. Why is it that this criticism is levelled, that the farmers are .not receiving sufficient amount of capital from private moneylenders? I say one of the reasons is that- this continuous attack upon the mortgagee is making him very, very careful. He is beginning to wonder what is going to happen. If the attack is pursued the mortgagee will refuse absolutely to lend money at all. I cannot see the justice of this attack. I don’t think it is going to do any good at all in the end to any particular party, but it may do considerable harm to the credit and finance of this country. If a Government ever came into power which set about seizing everything there was to be seized, and also seized all the capital, as I gather is the idea of Karl Marx, either by legislation or by other means, they could only do it once, and when they got to the end of it, and had spent it, it would mean chaos and bankruptcy. The most sensible thing we have in the w t ide world is capital. If this socialistic idea is to come into operation the only way is to reform human nature, and create—by education or other means—a different race of people altogether. In any case, the Government is the biggest mortgagee in the country, and that should suit the Labour Party, which loves Government control of everything.”