THE MORATORIUM

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 17 September 1924, Page 5

THE MORATORIUM

EXTENSION BILL

SLIGHT AMENDMENTS MADE

(BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 16. The House went into committee tonight on the Mortgages Final Extension Bill as reported from the public accounts committee.

.In clause two Mr. Wilford moved to strike out the word “court,” which meant Supreme Court, with a view to inserting Magistrate’s Court. He maintained that the judges of the Supreme Court already had too much work to do and were not possessed of the same local knowledge as magistrates, who were thus better qualified to know whether a settler ivas likely to pull through or whether he was not. Mr. Massey suggested that Supreme Court judges might appoint different centres where applications could be heard and so avoid the necessity of country settlers travelling long distances to the cities. That would alleviate some of the hardships'. The Hon. C. J. Parr and the Hon. J. G. Coates supported referring the matter to the Supreme Court, but several country members preferred to have applications made to magistrates, Mr. H. E. Holland (Leader of the Labour Party) favoured entrusting the hearing of applications to magistrates as being cheaper to applicants. Mr. Massey asked the House to agree to the clause as it stood and he would discuss the matter with the AttorneyGeneral and have the clause amended in the Legislative Council. Members would thsn have an opportunity of considering it Mr. Wilford said the suggestion was reasonable and he would accent it, and the clause was then passed. Olaitse five was amended by putting forward the date to which extension orders might be extended from December 31, 1926, to March 31. 1927. A lengthy discussion followed on the date to bejfixed as the limitation to a mortgagee’s power of foreclosure, and XVally the date inserted in the Bill after several divisions was Julv 31, 1925.

The Bill was reported without further amendment.