Existing Mortgages To be Examined

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 67, 20 March 1936, Page 8

Existing Mortgages To be Examined

GENERAL ADJUSTMENT AND RESTORATION OP EQUITIES,

Tho readjustment of privato mortgages as well as State mortgages, and tha .restoration of equities iu land and homes, is an important item iu the Government’s future programme. The Prime Minister (the Hon. M. J. Savage) stated on Wednesday that flic. Government intended to set itself to the task of restoring these equities by promoting legislation authorising the readjustment of mortgages on the basis of an average of prices received for primary produce during the past eight, or ten years, and on an average of incomes during that period. “Readjustment must be general,” ha said, “and tlio basis of what a man can pay must bo his income. “We say to the dairy farmer that we are going to pay him so much for his butter, and we will base that price upon an average worked out over the last eight or ten years. Wo will go to the mortgagee and mortgagor and we will say that their mortgage must be treated on the same basis. Our job is to keep people on the land and in their homes. Tho basis of the whole scheme is New Zealand’s power to produce. We don’t care whether a man is living on a farm or in the city. Each has his problems and his difficulties, and wo arc going to do our best for both. As we level up prices for the dairy farmer, so must wages increase in both country and town. Town Mortgages. * f We expect that when the Arbitral tion Court starts operating under the amended legislation it will start to base the wages of the men in the towns on the same basis as we propose to fix the prices for the farmers in the country. The wage-earner is entitled to as muc i consideration in regard to mortgages as the farmer with his mortgage; the mortgage on the borne of the man in the town naturally comes into the picture, whether it is a State Advances mortgage, a mortgage issued by the Mortgage Corporation, or a private m °Mr Sa Savage said that the only basis upon' which° to review mortgages was on an average of incomes over the last eight or ten years. The previous Government adopted tho opposite policy in dealing with the farmers. I said. “We are going to put you unc er servation for a period of five years, end then we will have reached a basis upon which to work.” That was no the present Government’s way. K intended to work on the average prices for the past eight or ten years, and thus arrive at a reasonable price for tbe farmer’s products. If that statement were analysed its basis would be found to be sound. “Unless something is done to increase the farmer’s money income progressively with the increase in production, then any inereaso of production under supervision will not assist him at all,” added the Prime Minister. “His money income will remain about the same. The farmer’s experience for the ten rears ended 1033 proved that statement. If wc base our valuation of farm securities upon an average or the value of production over a period of past years, say, eight or ten years, we can begin at once to rehabilitate the farmer who is in difficulties.”