RELIEF LOANS.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20916, 25 July 1933, Page 10

RELIEF LOANS.

LEGISLATION NOT TO BE RENEWED. NO MOKE BORROWING WITHOUT POLLS. U'l'liSS .SbSOUATIO.V 'J WELLINGTON, July 24. An announcement that it was not the intention of the Government to renew the legislation authorising local bodies to raise loans for unemployment relief without the consent of the ratepayers was made today by the Minister for Finance, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates. After recalling that the legislation was enacted in 1920', Mr Coates explained thai at that time it was intended only as a temporary measure to tide over the initial stages of unemployment. which no one at that time thought would extend over a long period of years. Incidentally in 1926 there was no unemployment taxation, and the relief which was then given was by means of the acceleration of public works. Authority to borrow without taking a poll of the ratepayer was part of the plan then conceived to speed up public works and thereby create employment. The Government felt that. Die time had arrived when local authorities should consult the ratepayers on any proposals to raise further loan moneys, for in the long run it was the ratepayer who must meet the special rates which had to be struck as security for loans raised. The fact that it was not inlended to renew the legislation did not mean, Mr Coates said, that the normal development *>l work of local authorities won' I be affected.