HARBOUR LOANS

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28150, 13 December 1956, Page 3

HARBOUR LOANS

£500,000 RAISED IN NINE MONTHS

The response to loans raised by the Lyttelton Harbour Board compared favourably with that to loans by other local authorities in Canterbury, said the secretary-manager (Mr A. L. Burk) at yesterday's meeting of the board.

In nine months, the board had been able to raise and arrange for loan finance totalling almost £500,000, said Mr Burk. The least satisfactory aspect was that the board had had to go beyond its own district for loans totalling more than £300.000.

The response to the Port Development Loan No. 1 of £250,000 had not been as satisfactory as could have been wished, £llO.OOO still needing to be raised, said Mr Burk. The funds in hand, together with the ordinary resources, were' sufficient, however, to enable the first section of the development programme to proceed without interruption.

Two hundred thousand pounds had been guaranteed as the first instalment of the dredge loan of £600,000, Mr Burk said. The amount, together with more than £lOO.OOO held in the floating plant reserve fund, would enable the board to accept a tender for the construction of the new vessel. The board decided to hold a special meeting in February to consider applying to the Local Government Loans Board to raise a further sum for port development. The engineer-in-chief (Mr J. A. Cashin) said he had not yet arrived at a definite figure, but the requirement would not be lower than the first instalment of £250,000.