ADVANCES TO SETTLERS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LVI, Issue LVI, 24 October 1908, Page 4

ADVANCES TO SETTLERS.

Indications arei not wanting that the Advances to Sottlera Department is being seriously tested just now, and that it is, unable to meet the demands upon it. In the closing days of the late session of ParlianKemt the matter was discussed! and Sir Joseph Ward quite frankly admitted that the demands have lately been &a enormous that the Department had difficulty in adjusting itself to the) circumstances. He /add among other things that the applications had riaetn to oveor two milliansi par annum.. The increased demand is easily explained. On the one hand, the Banks are declining practically all advance) business so far m landed property is concerned. On the other private lender!} have also materially increased tiheir rates. But the Government is popularly supposed to. have an inexhaustible supply and power to get more if they want it, and borrowers naturally a«re simply rusk ing 4 \ per cent money which relatively ia cheaper than it has ever been. Therei are, however, limits even to' the Government's supply of money, and one restriction after another has lieen

put on to check the demand. Their* ia disappointment when advances ore) declined, but tho persona refused leally have no business Ijasia for a grievance!, in to for as the Department in. its commercial status has a right to accept or decline business wherat it thosas — M' at any rate when it is able to give a good reason for refusal, and there can be no bettor reason than the ■want of means. But we have hoard it rumored, locally for some little time past that co-'njJaints have arisen from a totally different cause — that people whose, applications had) beetni accepted, who w<3re promised money, find that they cainn&t get it, and sire embarrassed! by the position in which they arei placed. In Canterbury the- same complaint appears to have bean niadei, bub more definitely. The Chrisbchurch Press of Wednesday lust has an article on me wibjeot in whioh it j gays: "Information has come to our knowledge which shows irtwit serous inconvenience ia still being experienced by borrowers who have been promiaed an advance by the Department, and have entered into financial undertakings on the strength of stuch promises, but who have "been unable ta obtain the money whan it was due and urgently wanted. Cases ha,ve beeth lnantiomed to us in which the moi'fcgages have not only been executed, but actually registered, and the insurance®, in accordance witih the d&mands of the' Department, havo been transferred to the State Fire Insurance Department, and yet tho applicants have bean unable to obtain the money. It is easy to. understand that such delay to a man who had retted upon the advance to pay off a mortgage which had become ' due, or to meet his obligations to builders and otheirs^ might mean nothing short <tf ruin to him. We have reason to- believe that in more than one ca&e, but for timely assistance rendered by a bank, the consequences to a, disappointed applicant would have bes<n disastrous. We cannot imagine anyr.* thing more unbusinesslike than s?uch dilatory conduct on the part ci a Government Department, which ought to siet an example of pz'omptitude in money matters." If such he the real ata,tei of affairs it. certainly is a very serious reflection on the working o>f the Department, and shows the necessity of reform, for as the Press quite truly il soverely says : "Ordinary com-mom-sen^ to say nothing of business probity and prudemo©, would suggest, however, that the Department should ascertain, exactly what money it has available!, and that it should not promise) a single loan without being certain that the money will bo available to bs paid over punctually on. tho diw date. No privates linn would dara to break faith with its clients in the way charged against this Gojvarflment Depairtmoßt. If the money waja promised by a certain date* andwas^ ,not foithcomiing whan the borrower. Jiad' performed all his part of the contract and th* date became due, the Law, Counts would bef appealed to, and the, mortgagor would .obtain substantial^ damages." »g^*