CORPORATION SINKING FUND.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 271, 13 November 1909, Page 8

CORPORATION SINKING FUND.

- QUESTION OF CONTROL. DISCUSSION IN PARLIAMENT. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON. Friday. A general discussion sprang up in the House yesterday afternoon on the section (No. 25) of the Local Bodies Loans Amendment Act of last year providing that the Public Trustee is to be sole commissioner of sinking funds of loans raised under the Local Bodies Loans Act. It arose out of the presentation by Mr. Davey .(chairman) of the report of the Public Petitions Committee, and the petition of the Dunedin City Council, who asked either that the section be repealed or that they be exempted' from its operation. The committee's report was unfavourable, and Mr. Davey moved that it lie on the table. Mjr. Sidey protested against both the finding of the committee and the working <of the section complained of. The Government was doing a manifest injustice to corporations who were able to manage their own affairs, and who were able independently to laise loans on as good terms as if they had the Government behind them. He moved •as an amendment—'"That the petition be referred to the Government." Messrs. Glover and Baume, on behalf of the Auckland Corporation, supported Mr. Sidey's amendment. Mr. Massey suggested that when the House came to deal with a Local Bodies Bill this session the clause objected to should be repealed. Where there was no State guarantee local bodies should be allowed to use the sinking fiwrls to their own advantage. The Hon. R. McKeizie maintained that the provision was a goo:l one, otherwise local bodies would traiSc in their own stocks. Mr. Herriee said that the Minister of Public Works had declared that the section was a safeguard against local bodies trafficking in their own stocks, but he (Mr. Herries) wished tc point out that the Government did precisely the same thing. Moneys borrowed for public works were invested in the Advances to Settlers Office. (Laughter.) Mr. Davey considered it was the duty of local authorities to assist the Government, for the one million and a-quarter of sinking funds would be a help to the Government, and in return the local bodies would get good security and a regular payment of interest at the fixed date without any cost of collection. Mx. Sidey's amendment was carried by 34 votes to 25, and the report, as amended, was tabled.