LOAN FINANCE

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26832, 10 September 1952, Page 12

LOAN FINANCE

NEEDS OF STATE AND LOCAL BODIES

CO-ORDINATED CONTROL URGED (New Zealand Press Association)

DUNEDIN, September 8. A central authority was needed in New Zealand to control both Government hnd local body loans, said the chairman of the finance committee of the Dunedin City Council (Cr. W. B. Taverner), when discussing the new interest rate and the difficulty which the City Corporation has had in meeting its urgent loan requirements of £1,050.000.

The need for the co-ordination of control could be urged upon the Government. Cr. Taverner said. It was of considerable importance. He had long been a strong advocate of a better system of raising local body loans, he said. There should be parity with the State in this respect. The Local Government Loans Board was merely a judging authority, and it did not care when it had "vetted” the loan whether the mone v was raised or not. There should be one authority controlling both Government and local body loans. The Municipal Corporation had discussed the subject at one stage, but the question did not at present appear to be a live issue with it, Cr. Taverner said. It was quite apparent that the long term of local body loans approved by the Loans Board was not to-day. The tendency was for relatively short terms, and If the council were permitted to offer a 10-year term for loans at the new interest rate he felt sure that it would be able to raise all the money it required. He said that advice had been received from the Treasury that approval had been given to the variation of the interest rate to 4 per cent, for eight loans, for which the city at present required £822,000.