AID PRODUCTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 159, 6 July 1940, Page 11

AID PRODUCTION.

GOVERNMENT PLAN.

FARMERS' FINANCIAL NEEDS.

SCHEME BEING WORKED OUT. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Proposals being worked out by the Government for the provision of financial assistance to individuals and companies engaged in the production or processing of primary produce were reviewed by the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser, in an interview. He said the purpose of the arrangement was to enable farm production generally to be maintained at the highest possible level and to ensure that increased supplies of products urgently required by the United Kingdom were brought into being without delay. In cases where it was that finance for the undermentioned purposes was not procurable through normal channels, advances were to be made available out of the funds provided by the Government through the State Advances Corporation. These advances would be of many tyjies, but might be broadly summarised under the following headings:—

Various Purposes. ' (a) To dairy companies for capital] works, such as alterations or extensions to premises or plant; interest to be at £3 per cent per annum, (b) To dairy factories for the purpose of financing the purchase by suppliers of additional fertilisers or stock, companies to be responsible for repayment of such loans; interest to be. £3 12/6 per cent per annum to factories, suppliers to be charged not more than £4 2/0 per cent. (c) To farmers for any legitimate enterprise involving increased production; interest rate to be £4 2/6 per cent, (d) To contractors for additional plant; interest to be £4 2/6 per cent.

(e) Other clashes of loans required from time to time; interest to be fixed by rc-ference to the Minister of Finance. With a view to securing the best possible results in increased production, it was proposed that the State Advances Corporation should act in close cooperation with the National Council of Primary Production and with the district primary production councils. Special Funds Provided. The advances would be made out of special funde provided by the Govern ment for the purpose. In addition, the State Advances Corporation would, within the limits of its own funds and within the statutory limits under which it operated, continue to make finance available to farmers for the economic development of their farms, and the board of management of the corporation was now in a position to consider appliI cations from farmers to & greater extent than it had been able to do in the immediate past. Mr. Fraser gave an assurance that the administrative details would be worked out in the shortest possible time, in order that the corporation might be in a position to make an immediate start on the work.