AGAINST A MORATORIUM

Taranaki Daily News, 6 December 1930, Page 6

AGAINST A MORATORIUM

CANTERBURY CHAMBER’S VIEWS. UNANIMOUS OPINION GIVEN. ’ By Telegraph.—Press Association. Christchurch, Last Night. .. The proposal that the Government be The proposal that the Government be asked- to impose a moratorium was discussed by the council of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce to-night. The opinion was almost unanimously against any such step and the council carried a motion that the Government be asked to hear the opinions of the commercial, banking and legal communities before coming to a decision. The discussion revealed the opinion that a might do harm rather than good; might not help the farmers in the present difficulties and would jeopardise their chances of obtaining credit in the future. The farmer at present was not anxious about the calling up of current mortgages but the trouble was that he had not the money to pay the interest due. It was also argued that a great amount of cap-, ital invested in farm mortgages represented the sole capital and source of income of widows and children. Speakers said that the effect of wartime moratorium was still being felt and that this was the reason yhy farm securities were not -yet popular with lenders. Money had been coming back to this form of investment but even the threat of a moratorium had already had the effect of making lenders disinclined to seek mortgage investments. • It was also said that the only effect of a moratorium could be to -peg up the value of land and add to the burdens by the capitalising of unpaid interests, so that when the moratorium jvas eventually lifted the last state of the farm-. ers would be worse than the first.