SPOILING THE MARKET

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 69, 23 March 1931, Page 10

SPOILING THE MARKET

LOANS AND INVESTORS

To state that not.only. Governments but local 'authorities resort to the London Hibney market for requirements may be trite, but apparently the fact is overlooked, or ignored by correspondents in New Zealand*. The "Financial Times,". London, 7th February, published the following cablegram attributing it to th,e Central News Agency and dated Auckland, 7th February:— "Napier is a bankrupt city, with all her assets in ruins. The Borough Council, the Harbour Board, and other public bodies are faced with complete bankruptcy owing to * the destruction of the offices of the Government, lawyers, and the banks. It appears that when the great shock game, the doors of a strongroom containing millions of pounds' worth of securities was open, and before it could bo shut the flames swept up and licked up all the deeds and securities. The result is chaos. One office alone has lost securities covering three and a half million pounds." Napier has suffered severely, from the disaster, but in the opinion of those in New Zealand highly qualified to speak, it is not "a bankrupt city." No doubt underwriters in London and others in close touch with New Zealand know the financial condition of its local authorities to the last pound, and they also know that Napier is not bankrupt. But the British investor, the potential subscriber to New Zealand local body-loans, ia not necessarily so well informed, and reports of the character above quoted are considered to prejudice tho good name of -local bodies in general as well as that of Napier in particular when they enter the London market for loans for sound and legitimate purposes.