LOCAL BODY LOANS

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27734, 11 August 1955, Page 14

LOCAL BODY LOANS

£26,267,000 APPROVED LAST YEAR BOARD REPORTS RECORD DEMAND (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 10. The value of loans sanctioned by the Local Government Loans Board in the last financial year was a record at £26,267,926, or almost £2,000,000 more than in the previous year. This is stated in the board’s annual report, tabled in the House of. Representatives today. The rise in loans sanctioned had begun in 1951, and had steadily continued, the report said. The present demand for loan capital appeared to exceed the amount that was rapidly forthcoming from investors. The most substantial increases were in Joans for water reticulation, drainage. and roading, which claimed more than half the totpl amount of loans sanctioned for new works, the report said. Development of these basic services must be expected to follow the accelerating population growth. In Wellington and adjocent urban areas, £1,056,830 had been sanctioned for drainage purposes, said the board. The re-organisation of the transport system of the four main centres had continued over the last six years, and when completed would have cost about £10,000,000. Discussing local body loan debt, the report said the total at March 31, 1955, was £ 83.606,506—the highest level since 1931. when the total was £74,141,188. Ninety-five per cent, of the present debt was domiciled in New Zealand compared with 65 per cent, in 1931.