MORTGAGE ADJUSTMENTS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19130, 26 September 1936, Page 15

MORTGAGE ADJUSTMENTS

AMENDMENTS TO BILL UPPER HOUSE PROPOSALS CONCESSION TO CRITICS (Pev Tress Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. Several amendments, mainly of a minor nature., ■wire made to the'Mortgagors and Lessees' Rehabilitation Bill by thft Statutes Revision Committee of the Legislative. Council. The right of a vendor or mortgagee to repurchase any property is now dependant on an order of the. adjustment commission. This amendment has been made to meet, the wishes of the members of the Opposition in the House of Representatives. It lias been made dear that relief given to any guarantor will not release anybody else. This amendment has been made to meet the fear that if one guarantor in a joint and several guarantee were released, such release might discharge the othersThe time for the service of notice on a guarantor has been extended to one month where failure to serve the notice was. unavoidable. An amendment has' been made removing doubt which might, prevent a mortgagee dealing with his mortgage where sales of property, are made after an adjustment has been made. Owing to the financial nature of the bill, these amendments will go forward from the Legislative Council as recommendations to the House.

In moving the. committal of the bill, the Hon. 11. Pagan said the hope of the Government was to write finis to a most difficult problem that had been apparent for the past six years. A serious objection to the legislation was that it violated the sanctity of contracts, but, in recent times the. "stress of affairs and interests of the country made it necessary for private contracts to be interfered with.

The. Hon. 1L Masters said the bill would have the effect of protecting people who had paid down a small proportion of capital and those who bad ho equity in the land at all. If finality could be arrived at, it would create confidence for future investments.

Mr. Masters said it was essential that justice should be done to the mortgagee, guarantor, and lessor, as well, as to the mortgagor, lessee and grantee. He did not believe it should be a policy of the survival of the fittest. It would have been disastrous, for the farmers and those who financed them if the previous Government had not assisted them in some way.