PARLIAMENT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 68, 16 February 1935, Page 9

PARLIAMENT

THE MORTGAGE BILL. VIEWS OF FARMERS’ PRESI- , DENT. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Eeb. 15. When the House of Representatives resumed at 2.30 p.m. Mr W. Nash continued his address in the debate on the Mortgage Corporation Bill. The State Advances Department, he said, should be given power to accept money on deposit and it would then be able to do all the Mortgage Corporation could do. The Minister had stated that the corporation was not to be run for profit, but where was the dividend or interest on share capital to come from P He agreed there was a need for a readjustment of mortgages, blit he held that a corporation containing private capital would not operate in the best interests of the people of lhe Dominion. Mr IV. J. Poison said lie was not satisfied with the proposals before the House. Farmers could not pay the rate of interest they had i>eon faced with in recent years, and the most urgent thing they had to consider was what interest reduction and principal readjustment they were going to be given in the next few months. The corporation would dictate interest rates if it succeeded, and the farmer had a definite need to know what the corporation meant. The corporation would also largely decide the value of land iii the Dominion. The fanner was asking why the Government would not rid linn of the financial domination under which he had suffered tor years. The farmer wanted to see the corporation managed by those who would keep interest down and not raise it. The Bill would mean the end of the co-operative financial system at present operating. The fact that the Stale had a majority on the directorate did not give Him any confidence in ttie slogan “service before profit”; it might oe a repetition ot the Bank of New Zealand, where the State had four out of the six directors. He contended the corporation should be managed by an independent board. He was convinced the maximum the farmer could pay was 3| per cent. He contended that the Rural intermediate Credit Association should have been widened, instead of being absorbed into the corporation. .He wondered how those who objected to shareholders in the Reserve Bank would view the shareholders in that corporation. Mr H. T. Armstrong said it was not only with the actual rate oi interest they had to deal, but some of the mortgage had to be written off. '.Lhe Bill gave security to tho moneylender, but reduced the farmer to serfdom. He thought the experiment was a very dangerous one and one to which lie would not like to be a party. He contended that, before any reform giving relief fo the farmer was successful, it would be necessary for the Government to take control of the monetary system. The people who controlled tile monetary system controlled the prices of produce and it was tile low price of his products that had brought the farmer to the position he was in to-day. Mr W. J. Broadfoot claimed that interest rates had been held at too high a level for 20 years ami any means that could be put into operation to reduce the rate of interest were steps in the right ' direction. He thought it would be possible for the corporation to pin the rate down to 3£ or 4 per cent. Ho claimed that long-term finance was necessary to carry on farming successfully and he welcomed the extension of the term to 50 vears.

The debate was adjourned and the House rose at 5.20 p.m.