Loans to Local Bodies.

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 17, 22 August 1905, Page 2

Loans to Local Bodies.

In view of the loan being applied for by the Otautau Town Board for street improvements, the following particulara of the position of the local bodies loan account, taken from the financial statement may be of interest: — Loans to Local Bodies Acoount.— Up to the 31st March last the total amount of debentures created and issued and carried into this account was £2,412,100, and the total disbursements have been — to local bodies, £1,948,443; to Lands and Survey Department towards opening up blocks of landfor settlement, £387,561, and'to Public Works Fund, £89,800 m exchange'fordebentures'nrider "The Roads and Bridges Construction Act, 1882." The balance at credit of the Loans to Local Bodies Account on the 81st of March, 1904, was £18,418. Debentures for £185,000 were created and issued during the past year, and refunds of unexpended balances of grants amounting to £1,890 were received. Payments on account of tbe loans were made during the year — to local bodies £165,898, and to wards openingup blocks of land for settlement, £28,895; leaving at the end of last year a balance of £5,500 to the credit of the account.

Of the total amount of debts inscribed tolstFebrurary last thefollowing figures will show the proportion of the various rates at svhich the loans were made: — Loans at 5 per cent, rate . . £7,033 Loan* at i*> per cent rate .. £1,038,006 Loins ai 4 "per cent, rate . . £63 729 Loans i.t 3 J per cent, rate . . £929,666 £2,038,494. On account of the continuation of the stringency of the money-market 1 have had to refuse applications for loans totalling £180,012, principally applied for hy Borough Councils, whose valuable resources it is considered, would enable them to obtain loans outside the Government; and, as there are still so many necessitous local authorities having large areas m the back blocks, and clamouring for loans from the Government, these claims must h»ve my first consideration. The payment of the half-yearly instalments of interest on the inscribed debts of the various local authorities continue to be fully and punctually paid.