The stringency in the money market reflects the seriousness of the depression. The appalling number of business and bank failures Shanghai in recent years tells the havoc already played" by the stagnation in the real estate market. In. pre-depression days, credit. was expanded, in many cases, unduly, fang investments in real estate itself and in mortgages secured on real state were considered most lucralive. Land values soared to high levels, "building activity multiplied, and the market for the buying and selling of land was extremely active, 0 much so that something approaching an artificial boom was created and real estate business was considered more of a speculative enterprise. The depression caught the ess financially fortified by. storm, and the panic to-day is certainly as spectacular as the boom of yesterday, "It fs to the interest of the public, therefore, if prosperity is to be regained, as well as of China as whole, that real estate, as a. form Of investment, should be restored to the position which it once enjoyed. ity Frozen Assets "The possible remedy to-day seems to lie in a concerted effort on the Part of all interested to devise a scheme whereby real estate may be converted into a more liquid asset gain. "Metaphorically speaking, some the water must be squeezed out and, and its price must be revalued again. The value prevail-Ing in boom days was undoubtedly excessively boosted, out of line with is Intrinsic value,'and an equitable way of establishing its true value after all factors have been weighed should be devised.
"Again, a financial group or corporation' may be formed, whose business it Is to re-discount mort 5 held or to be acquired by exist-Ing banks and institution. As the present market is already glutted with mortgages, and existing banks fre reluctant to' grant loans on them, some method for the re-discount. of mortgages should provide temporary relict In these stringent times.
To go a step further, a loan may be feated abroad with the re-dis-Jcounted mortgages as security. Here again is another case of international The New Land Laws "I presume most of you have read the proposed reforms of the mort gage laws drafted by the Bureau of Land, which have been submitted to the City Government and transmitted to the National Government. The Provisional Regulations, may hhere recapitulate, provide in essence that all land in the City of Shange hhal, after being registered with the Land Bureau and officially surveyed and certified in respect of its right of ownership as evidenced by a land certificate of a title deed of perpetual lease, shall be eligible for mortgage, that the mortgage upon the payment of his loan being defaulted at its maturity shall have the right te sell directly the mortgaged property by ruction; that any dispute regarding the sale or the mortgage, on production, of new evidence affecting the Tegal {ite of the mortgagor, shall be referred to the Land Tribunal under the Land Laws, and before the estab-Ushment of the tribunal, to the court: and. that, in case of necessity, the mortgagee shall provide a guarantee as a condition for the sale of the mortgaged property.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.