CORRESPONDENCE FARMERS AND MORTGAGEES.

Hawera Star, Volume L, 7 February 1931, Page 7

CORRESPONDENCE

FARMERS AND MORTGAGEES.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—A more ridiculous statement than that uttered by Mr Cocker at the last meeting of the Farmers’ Union! would be difficult to find. Mr Cocker characterised as c ‘ legalised theft” a mortgagee demanding money due under his mortgagee and putting the defaulting .mortgagor off his farm in cases where the farmer had paid a substantial deposit. He calls upon the farmers in the community in general, and the Government in particular, to set up a board and to introduce either legislation or regulations interfering with the private contractual rights of the community. It is admitted that the farmers in the com'munify are at the present time suffering severely and everyone in the community is alive to their position and anxious to do all that they can to help, I but it is l simply no use for the farmers! ! to. become hysterical and demand statutory protection. Air Cocker’s suggesi tion at first blush may appear to be a useful contribution, but it is shortsighted in the extreme, and this very shortsightedness on the part of the farming community is one of the reasons why they always do feel times of depression and why they always do set up through Farmers’ Unions and other bodies a cry for relief; The farmers must realise that they are dealing with a product which is subject to the flue-' tuations of the market and liable to be influenced by depressions in other parts of the world. In good times is there a single farmer other than a few longheaded men who ever thinks about such things? No. He takes his 2/- a lb. butter-fat —makes a bit of money—buys a larger block of land, and hopes tomake more. Not content with this he places no reliance on the warnings that issue from London regarding the quality of his produce. While it- produces 2/- a lb. it is good enough for him. and he

reaps the benefit or thinks he does. TVhat the farmers in the community need to do is to set their own house in order and if they did this effectively the value or their produce would rapidly increase. If the New Zealand farmers were to-day receiving the same price for their cheese as the Canadian farmers are, there would be no acute slump among farmers producing cheese. Now, because of his own shortsightedness—his suspicious nature towards any advicv irom people who are not farmers, but who happen to know a good deal more than he does about the selling of produce and what the consumer demands—he looks for a refuge and support by the enactment of some farm of moratorium. Mr Farmer, I would ask you to reflect on the reason why there- is a shortage of money for lending on land. Why is the rate of interest on mortgages onland so high? Simply because the investing public has never regained 1 its confidence in mortgages since the last moratorium, coupled, of course, with the fact that other investments have been open to them "producing nearly as good a return. If there had been no moratorium in the past, and if the investing public were not aware that as soon as a slump occurs farmers Avish to tie up the money of the investing public for their own benefit, I venture to- suggest that rhe shortage of money for lending on farm securities would not be so acute. For after all, while money is diverted from time to time, into- other channels, the recent .earthquake demonstrates Avhat is a pro A-ed and accepted fact, that you cannot get better security for your money than broad acres. What, price do you think Napier Borough Council debentures (if there are any) are worth to-day? What value" is there in the fact that such debentures are protected by a rate? TVhat is there now to- rate in Napier?

j The farmers in the community have got a great opportunity to- show tnat, like everybody else, they can pull up 1 heir belts and get to .work. Very few' hard-working farmers will lie put off ' their farms, because .the mortgagee ■ generally is the first to recognise tnat it is no good putting a goo-d man off a farm, but if people like the members of the Ideal executive of the Farmers J Union' would keep quiet on- subjects' they know very little about and get down to hard work and encourage the farmers to, improve the quality of their I produce and stay on their farms, they t would be doing a service to the com- ; munity instead of a dis-serviec.—l am, i etc.. - I COMMON SENSE.