FIVE MILLION LOAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 215, 9 September 1921, Page 6

FIVE MILLION LOAN.

« . A CRITICISM ANSWERED. In reply to a recent criticism that no ■word had been heard of the £5,000,000 loan recently raised in London, ' the Acting-Prime Minister (Sir Francis Bell) made a statement to a Wellington interviewer that the money had been retained in London to meet Consolidated Revenue commitments. Although £1,750,000 of the loan (outside of the £3.000,000 originally intended -to be retained in London for purchase of public works material) was" intended to be available for expenditure in the Dominion, the Minister explained that it was not brought to New Zealand for the reason that such action would have involved a useless payment of exchange. The Consolidated Fund had been providing money for loan works, and the money raised on loan in London for public works had been used to meet Consolidated Fund engagements, and would be repaid from the Consolidated Fund to the Public Works Department as the revenue came in. This enabled a greater amount to be set aside from the Consolidated Fund for public works, but was subject to the disadvantage that the works had to await the receipt of revenue, which was always slow coming in at this time of the year.