MORTGAGE EXTENSION ACT.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VIII, Issue 215, 13 August 1918, Page 3

MORTGAGE EXTENSION ACT.

] TO THE EDITOR.] Sir, —I notice that the New Zealand Farmers’ Union has passed a resolution that the Government be urged to extend the Mortgages Extension Act for a period of five years after the war or for such period as the Government thinks fit. *At the same gathering the Farmers’ Union objected strongly to the commandeering of their w’ool for a period of twelve months after the termination of the war, although that wool was being purchased at a very substantial price. How do these resolutions square with each other 1 On the one hand the unfortunate mortgagee is to be precluded from obtaining possession of his money which he may require for purposes of his own, for instance, to buy a farm. He is further to be precluded from making the most profitable use of his money. On the other hand the farmer claims the right to obtain the market price for his produce whilst desiring to compel the mortgagee to lend his money' at a restricted rate of interest to enable the former to make the highest income possible. Last year the Wellington Provincial Farmers’ Union passed a resolution urging the Government to compel the mortgagee to pay part of the farmer’s land tax without giving the mortgagee the option of calling up his money . Farmers should remember that whtrt is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander and that if the mortgagee’s right of freely dealing with his money is to be limited by Act of Parliament the farmers’ right of dealing with his property should also be so limited. I commend this suggestion to the Farmers’ Union. It will be a great pity if the action of the farmers should create antagonism between morgagors and mortgagees and compel the latter to form an association to protect their interests. In contrast to the action of the farmers who have obtained the highest possible prices for their produce and have made large sums of money' owing to the war the mortgagees have properly submitted with good grace to the provisions of the Mortgagees Extension Act being in force during the war and personally I should look on any' money received by way of increased interest during the war in respect of mortgages in existence at the commencement of the war as “blood money.” —I am, etc-. MORTGAGEE. Hastings, Aug. 12. 191.