SOLDIER FARMERS

Southland Times, Issue 19658, 7 October 1922, Page 5

SOLDIER FARMERS

SECOND MORTGAGES. MADE WITHOUT CONSENT. (Special to the Times). WELLINGTON, October 6. The trouble of some of those who sold farms to returned soldiers were mentioned in the House to-day by Mr W. 11. Field (Otaki). Some of the vendors, said Mr Field, sold at prices exceeding the amount advanced to the purchasers under the I)t> charged Soldiers’ Settlement Act, and for the balance accepted a second mortgage. The soldiers were not always successful farmers and sometimes their farms so declined in value that there was no -ccurity left for the second mortgage. The Government as first mortgagee was fully protected. The Minister of Lands (Mr Guthrie' .-aid he was quite well aware that matters had sometimes turned out ar the member had stated. Occasionally soldiers had contracted second mortgages without the knowledge of the Department. Had the Department known of the liabilities that .-ome men were assuming in addition to the liability for the Government advance it would have warned the men that, they could not hope to succeed. A law had already been passed providing that when the soldier failed and had to give up his farm the vendor might take back the farm and assume liability for the amount of the advance originally given to the soldier. A member: What about the poor soldier who goes off the farm? Mr Guthrie: The soldier has had every possible chance of making good and if he cannot make good to the Government or the second mortgagee it is not the fault of the one or the other.”