Rural Bank to help with flood damage

Press, 12 July 1983, Page 2

Rural Bank to help with flood damage

Parliamentary reporter Farmers in Marlborough, Nelson, and the West Coast whose farms suffered flood damage can get assistance from the Rural Bank.

The Minister in charge of the bank, Mr Maclntyre, said yesterday that any loan applications would receive “sympathetic consideration.”

He was arranging with Sir Wallace Rowling (Lab., Tasman) and Mr D. L. Kidd (Nat., Marlborough) to visit

stricken areas in Marlborough and Nelson on Thursday. They would be accompanied by the assistant Director-General of Agriculture, Mr Royce Elliott, and the Rural Bank’s general manager, Mr Albert Fear. Mr Maclntyre said that farmers should approach the nearest Rural Bank office as soon as they had assessed the extent of damage suffered. Loans could be used for all forms of restoration work and farm expenditure, he said, including the buying of meal, hay, and other stock feed. Loans could also cover cartage, reinstatement of

pastures, living expenses, and normal maintenance where there was a loss of income.

“Repayment terms and conditions are flexible and can be tailored to the particular circumstances of the applicant. “If necessary, interest and principal can be deferred until a farmer’s position has recovered sufficiently to enable payments to be met,” he said.