MORTGAGE CORPORATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22046, 28 February 1935, Page 15

MORTGAGE CORPORATION

Sir, —The problematical relief offered by the Mortgage Corporation Bill to the farming industry in the form of interest reduction is only a futile gesture. Anyone of experience and sound judgment in such matters knows full well that all farming land is grotesquely over-valued and until these values are written down to a figure more in accordance with their productive value, which must necessarily he based on our overseas markets, farming in this country will never be a paying proposition. The present position has been brought about through a series of political actions, no doubt well meant, but disastrous in their results. The policy of State advances in its initiation was very commendable and if properly administered would have been of lasting benefit, but the baneful effect of political interference caused all prudent methods to be jettisoned, in consequence of which the State is. now either the holder of millions of pounds of mortgages, which can never be redeemed, or is mortgagor in possession of unsaleable properties. These remarks apply with equal .force to the soldier settlement scheme, where the Government, egged on by all political parties bidding for the returned soldiers' votes, blindly rushed values to a ridiculous figure. To avoid facing unpleasant realities the Government now proposes, instead of writing off its bad clebts, to foist them 011 to this new body, with a most complicated arrangement for liquidating them, over a long period, possibly in the hope that by that method the huge loss will not be so noticeable. Lastly, but for the unwarranted interference of the politicians (all parties being equally to blame), between mortgagor and mortgagee, there would have been no need for this pretentious legislation and the moral fibre of the people would not have suffered such injury. W.M.