BRITISH LOAN OFFERED

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27688, 18 June 1955, Page 6

BRITISH LOAN OFFERED

£1,000,000 FOR CITY OF AUCKLAND GOVERNMENT APPROVAL STILL NECESSARY (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, June 17. A loan of £1,000,000 has been offered to the Auckland City Council by an unnamed British source. The loan is without “tags,” and, it is assumed, may be used to finance any of the council’s civic projects. The consent of the British Government’s Capital Issues Committee is. however, required. Like most other local bodies, the council has been short of loan money recently, although £640,000 of its current loan flotation of £802,500 has been subscribed. The Mayor of Auckland (Mr J. H. Luxford) sajd to-night that £1,000.000 would cover the council’s requirements till well into 1956. The Mayor has communicated with the Minister of Finance (Mr J. T. Watts), who has promised to advise him promptly of the New Zealand Government’s policy on such transactions. If approval is given froffi Wellington, the loan offer will be formally considered by the council. Mr Luxford declined to give details of the rate of interest sought, or the duration of the loan. The offer, he said, had been made by a firm of New Zealand stockbrokers. on behalf of London principals. It was apparently a restilt of newspaper announcements that he (the Mayor) was investigating the possibility of raising money overseas. The council’s schedule of loan works is being revised. Water supply and drainage reticulation are expected to retain top priority.