“Govt duty” on local-body loans

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33046, 13 October 1972, Page 3

“Govt duty” on local-body loans

Money should be freely available for local body loans once the Local Authorities Loans Board had sanctioned them, Mr S. A. Whitehead, M.P. for Nelson, said at the South Island Local Bodies’ Association’s conference in Ashburton yesterday.

All local bodies had difficulty in raising loans and had to go to underwriters at extra cost, said Mr Whitehead, who was representing the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Kirk). Central government found it easier to raise money than local government and had a duty to assist local government, without which it could not survive. If the Labour Party became the Government, it would introduce a superannuation scheme and he thought that in a few years it would be looking for places in which to invest money. Everyone was aware of the

burden of rates and there had to be some relief, particularly for persons on fixed incomes, Mr Whitehead said. Labour had a rate relief plan whereby those persons would pay the first $4O of their rate demands and then one-third of the remainder, with the balance coming from the Consolidated Fund. There would be a salary limit. Mr Whitehead said there must be a better form of local government. It was now too greatly fragmented, with constant overlapping. If there was regional local government it would be in a better position in bargaining with the central government.