MORTGAGE BILL

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20056, 13 March 1935, Page 10

MORTGAGE BILL

THIRD READING DEBATE MR VEITCH’S APPEAL By Telegraph—Press Association WELLINGTON, March 12. The Mortgage Corporation Bill was recommitted in the House to-day in order that the Minister might introduce an amendment. Mr Coates said the object of the amendment was in connection with the dividend to be paid on the share capital. The Bill as it left the committee said the dividend was to be 1 per cent, above the bond rate. It was now proposed to fix the dividend at 45 per cent. Mr M. J. Savage, Leader of the Opposition, opposed the amendment. They could not fix the farmer with anything, but they could fix the money-lender with everything. Mr Coates said the amendment was introduced at the request of several gentlemen inside the House. As a matter of fact the same suggestion had come from the Labour Party, but now they were going back on it. Mr F. Langstone (Lab. Waimarino): That is a deliberate lie. The chairman of the Committee, Mr J. A. Nash, asked Mr Langstone to withdraw the words, but he refused, and Mr Speaker was sent for and the matter reported to him. Mr Langstone then withdrew the words, apologised, and the incident closed. The amendment was carried and the House proceeded to the third reading of the Bill. Mr Savage predicted that the Government would discover it had found its way into a blind alley. The Act would have to be amended at every session of Parliament for years to come. Mr W. A. Veitch (Ind., Wanganui) said there was grave anxiety throughout the country as to the effects of the present measures and other measures that were to follow. He suggested that the Prime Minister should have stopped the Minister of Finance proceeding with that unwise legislation. The Prme Minister should have resigned and advised the Governor-General to reappoint him. As a matter of fact Mr Forbes should have resigned when the Hon. W. Downie Stewart resigned, but it was still within his power to make a stand, exercise the powers of his office and act in the interests of the people. Undoubtedly the Minister of Finance had taken complete charge of the actions of the Government. . A Minister who was not the Prime Minister had taken complete control of the policy of the Government, and Mr Veitch appealed to the Prime Minister to take action which he alone had the power to take. Mr W. J. Jordan (Lab. Manukau) referred to the exemption of the corporation from the payment of rates. The British Government paid rates on public buildings, even on the Houses of Parliament at Westminster. The debate was adjourned and the House rose at midnight.