MORTGAGE RELIEF

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4954, 11 February 1937, Page 5

MORTGAGE RELIEF

LARGE TOTAL OF APPLICATIONS. COMPARISON OF CENTRES. A multitude of people in New Zealand are seeking relief from the burlen of mortgage debt, both on farms and urban properties. This was disclosed yesterday by the AttorneyGeneral, the Hon. H. G. R. Mason, who said in an interview that the total number of applications under the provisions of the Mortgagors and Lessees Rehabilitation Act of last year for adjustment of mortgage obligations on rural and urban properties was 33,793 when the period for making application ended on January 31. “An analysis of the returns has not yet been made in respect of the different kinds of properties for which application for a measure of relief has been made,” said Mr. Mason. “Some of the district totals, however, are interesting, as showing the different degrees of mortgage embarrassment in the main centres of population. Auckland, with the largest metropolitan and provincial population, leads with 5426 applications. Wellington comes next, with 3663, closely followed by Christchurch, with 3587. Some people may see evidence of traditional financial cautiousness in the returns from Dunedin. That shrewd centre’s total is only 666 applications. Farther south the aggregate is somewhat higher, the Invercargill returns being 1009.” Te Kuiti’s Large Total. The Minister mentioned that other centres with over 1000 applicants each were: Wanganui, 1037; Palmerston North, 1034; Gisborne, 1017. Other centres well up in lesser aggregates were Timaru, with 930 applications; Lower Hutt (mostly house mortgages) 872; Hamilton, including Waikato, with many dairy farms, 864; New Plymouth 852; Napier, 719. Applications registered in Masterton, which included Wairarapa, totalled 619. In the King Country there were 447 applications from the Te Kuiti district and 374 from Taumarunui. The aggregate for Hawke’s Bay was 1267, including Napier, 719, and Hastings, 548. In the Bay of Plenty there were 161 applications from Tauranga, 89 from Whakatane and 68 from Opotiki. Rotorua’s applicants totalled 197. Although Pukekohe for a long time has been generally looked upon as an exceptionally prosperous district, its applications totalled 533, compared with only 392 from Whangarei in the centre of North Auckland. Dargaville’s total was 327.