SETTLERS’ DIFFICULTIES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19260, 26 August 1924, Page 8

SETTLERS’ DIFFICULTIES.

SHORTAGE OF MONET. MR MASSEY SYMPATHETIC. . INFLATED LAND VALUES CONDEMNED. .A (From Our Own Correspondent 1 ' WELLINGTON, August 25. ’ i “One of tho tnmgs wo stinll have to do ‘this session,” said the Bruno Minister at iLeviu to-day, “is to reduce taxation. I lie fixation of this country is tar too heavy, "imd wo have *o reduce it as much as we ■ cfn, and 1 hope wo shall bo able to make ’boiiio very important reductions. I hero ate other matters which trouble us m 'connection v/ith finance. • There is a 'gpaxcity of money for mortgages, i’manciat -institutions are shy of lending to settlers ‘on mortgages, and we shall have to cio something to help matters. Ono ot the ’reasons is that local bodies of the country have been borrowing very much more than .Usual, and they have come into competition 'with the settlers who require to borrow capital to carry on their operations, ine . security of local bodies is looked on at the .present time as better than the secuuty Af tho farmers. Local bodies burrowed at Aid to 6i por cent., and 1 am alraid "c ; aball have to curtail borrowing by reciuc'during the rate of interest. It has not come ,to that yet. Settlers complain that they cannot get all the money they need. We made an important alteration m the la\ •which allowed settlers to borrow up to per cent, on the valuation of their holdings. and the Government has not been 1 able to find all tho money needed. VVc shall have to do something to meet the mi- : doubted demand which exists. We have this thing in hand, though I am not in a .position to speak definitely at present, hut -.1; may be able to be more definite in a . week or two. . , . , ~ . “One of the difficulties which affects this particular position is the inflated value Of lands. I don’t think your values hero in Levin axe as inflated as they are m other districts, but inflated values > 3 • direct trouble. Where you ha-ve inflated values the settler has to pay interest on mortgage. Then he is up against local -taxation, and next he has to pay laud tec whether ha makes a profit or not These are the things which are causing serious trouble at present. V^ltT^/ith ■ shall have to deal pretty drastically with those inflated values before long. . “The moratorium has been doing no good lor the last two or three years though it did good at the start, ’Then the people with money say they prefer to buy local hodv debentures. I hope we shall bo able to adjust mattters without difficußy. LKiring the session 1 expect to bo able to find an adequate supply of money for die settlers, but I am not able to make a definite statement at present.