MORTGAGORS AND TENANTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21601, 23 March 1932, Page 13

MORTGAGORS AND TENANTS

RELIEF BILL TO THE EDITOR

Sir, —Reading the account in to-day’s paper of the discussion on the Mortgagors and Tenants Relief Bill, I found the “ nigger in the wood pile ” which I, like many another, fully expected would be there. Mr Forbes, replying to Mr Holland, said “the clause in the Bill relating to the review of rentals would apply in the case of residential rents wherever there was some arrangement or document under which a tenancy was agreed upon for a specified period, but word-of-mouth, week-to-week arrangements would not come under review.” And there is the “catch in it” that was to be expected in such legislation brought forward by the Forbes-Coates Coalition, which some honest folk believe is not a “ government of the people, by the people, and for the people,” but a Government to legislate only in favour always of the comfortable few. What can be the result of the Bill applying only to rentals underdocumentary agreement but to make of it, in the experience of the bulk of tenants, merely a piece of “ eyewash ” to be trotted out by the Government as an act of equity on appropriate occasions, such as at times of further cuts in wages? By far the largest proportion of rents paid are by “ word-of-mouth, week-to-week " agreements, as is necessary, especially in these days, when a man does not know whether he will have an income next week to meet the rent of this week, let alone be bound by written agreement to pay a certain figure covering a future period. A misguided individual unofficially opened the Sydney Harbour bridge the other day in the name, it is said, of “decent politics.” What would this Government of ours have to say if it were brought home to it that reputable citizens in this Dominion are to-day questioning the decency of New Zealand’s politics, and questioning. - too, with a sound reasoning of truth?

If there are to be reductions in the wages bill of the community, there must inevitably be reductions in costs of living simultaneously, and the matter cannot be tinkered with in play-acting legislation. The position is rapidly becoming too acute. — I am, etc.. Tired of Shams. Mosgiel, March 22.

[Perhaps “ Tired of Shams ” will explain how it would, in his opinion, be possible to bring week-by-week arrangements under review.—Ed.,O.D.T.]