FIRST FEDERAL LOAN

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 299, 16 December 1911, Page 5

FIRST FEDERAL LOAN

FROM THE NOTES TRUST FUND. MELBOURNE. December 15. •In the House the Prime Minister (Mr. Fisher) introduced his first Federal Loan Bill to-night. It provides for a loan of £2,460,476, -whereof it is proposed to expend £600,000 on Commonwealth offices in London, £1,000,000 on the, construction of the Port Angusta-Kalgoorlie railway, and £600,000 on the acquisition of land as Federal territory. Mr. Fisher said that, although the Loan Bill' was introduced, it was not necessary to ask for the money here or elsewhere, there being sufficient funds available under the Australian Notes Trust Fund for this expenditure. The fund wasc accumulating rapidly, and the amount of interest available at the end of five, years would be at least a million. The Government proposed to create a sinking fund of a-half per cent in connection with the I'oan. The bill has passed) all its stages. The loan will be issued under the provision of the Commonwealth Inscribed Stock Act. Mr, Dcakin, in supporting the measure, said the bill dealt with matters which could no longer be postponed, and marked their entry upon a big national policy of development.