INTEREST RATE REDUCED

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30212, 17 August 1963, Page 5

INTEREST RATE REDUCED

Money-Lenders’ Loans In a reserved judgment delivered in the Supreme Court yesterday, Mr Justice Macarthur granted relief to a manufacturer, Basil Augustus Birch (Mr D. H. Hicks), in interest charged on loans from two money-lenders, Henry Cecil William Shaw and H.C.S. Holdings, Ltd., both represented by Mr J. G. Leggat. At the hearing last month, Birch sought a reduction in the rate of interest, 26 2-5 per cent., which was chargeable on four loans totalling £ll5O. Alternatively, he sought a declaration that the loans were invalid as they did not comply with the terms of the Money-lenders’ Act. “I am clearly of the opinion that the interest charged in respect of these transactions was excessive. In fact, I characterise it as being grossly excessive,” said his Honour. A reasonable rate, he said, was 15 per cent. His Honour said that Birch was a man of some education and business experience, that he sought out Shaw for these loans, and that he willingly entered into all the transactions with full knowledge of what he was undertaking. However, Shaw’s failure to comply with some of the provisions of the Money-lenders' Act did not commend him to the Court.