Untitled

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3839, 24 June 1873, Page 2

The Wanganui " Evening Herald" of the 19th instant devotes a leading article to the new Native Lands Act which it is proposed to introduce during the ensuing session, and falls into a grievous error when treating of the clause affecting mortgages. Our contemporary labours under the delusion that, in accordance with the provisions of the Act, mortgaged land cannot be sold by the mortgagee. This would be a happy position, as it remarks, for the mortgagor, were the statement correct ; but it is not. The Act provides that in case of default of payment the mortgagee shall not have the power to foreclose the equity of redemption — to say to his debtor, " I refuse your money now that the time for payment is past ; I will keep the land." But the property can be sold by auction, either by order of the Native Land Court or by order of the mortgagee himself, as the case may be, and as the latter may desire or not to obtain the property. Thus, it is intended that up to the last moment the native owner may have a chance of redeeming the land he has pledged, and so far he is protected and no further.