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State Aid to Farmers.

Since putting these notes together I have had the late Mr Macandrew's Bill for relieving farmers by loans shown me. I had heard of his advocating a State Bank for farmers and low interest. The Bill is undoubtedly an honest endeavour to find relief for a class that are being ruined and made homeless by usury and a sort of truck system still in existence. I think among others the weak points of the Bill are:—

1st—That the rate of interest contcmplated, 4½ per cent., is too low to allow a sufficient margin between the rate? paid in London, probably 4 per cent., and that proposed to be charged here—½ per cent, would not cover the expenses.

2nd—It only proposes to advance to half the value of the property. This does not go far enough. Two-thirds advance would in many cases be required to pay off existing mortgages. If any properties, however, came into the hands of the Government by default on the part of the mortgagors it would be a similar liability to all lands except those sold for cash.

3rd—The amounts proposed to be advanced were too limited in amount.

4th—Instead of the paper currency proposed, it looks as if the Government might with great advantage raise a loan of say a million, place it on a deposit in the various banks, and pay off if required any mortgages that came within the proper valuation to two-thirds of the value.

This is not an ordinary case. It is a money famine with the farmers, and wants vigorous and liberal action. It is no use talking to people about self-reliance, &c, in this case anymore than to those who are starving. They want help at once. It is no use showing the exact line where Democrary ends and Socialism begins in a case like this—the people want to be got out of the hands of the money-lenders. The Premier's (Sir Robert Stout's) remark in the debate on this bill in 1886," interest must come down," meaning in time, sounds rather like the remark of the man in the story to a lot of people who were drowning, "if you wait long enough, the tide will go down, and you will get your feet on the bottom." Of course all involved people could hardly be saved, but that does not seem a good reason for letting the page 28 whole drown, and certainly a man who has put his capital, time, and labour into a property has a first claim in equity against all comers. However, I commend the debate on this Bill to your perusal. See Public Advances on Land Bill, Parliamentary Debates, vol. 55.

I hope at our next meeting to lay before you a statistical return of foreclosed mortgages say for the past ten years, the names of the creditors, and as full particulars as possible, and to circulate the same. I think the proportion foreclosed will be startling out of the number of mortgages in the Colony; and it must be remembered that numbers of people have been forced out of their holdings quietly besides these.