FIVE PER CENT. HOPES

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 110, 11 May 1932, Page 9

FIVE PER CENT. HOPES

LOCAL BODIES; AND &ANKS

~ (By Telegraph.) - r (Speck! to "The* Evening Post.")

PALMERSTON^N., This Day.

■ The idea that jthe banks should knock 1 per cent, interest • off about : fifty millions of advances'and save the borrowers £500,000.aryear ;(or: even, that .the banks should _ come down-to '5 per cent., :with one million benefit, to borrowers) made the eyes, of. some Manawatu County Councillors ' sparkle ' when the Whakatane Council's circular on compulsory reduction of bank interest came before the Manawatu Council yesterday. ; Councillor' J. Boyee said it seemed that the banks, .not the Government, were running the country. ' The whole scheme would be killed unless the bank interest rates came down as welL I

The chairman (Councillor "W. E. Barber): "It is the feeling of a tremendous lot of people that the banks are getting off." ■ :

1 A resolution supporting the protest was passed, and ' the matter is to be brought to tbe notice of the member for the district.

The county clerk (Mr. A. K. Drew) mentioned that local' bodies)" had great difficulty in raising money at,the 5 per cent, (or 5% - per cent.) limit. Local body debentures for.five, ten, and fifteen years at 5% per cent, could be bought at £96, :and as low as £91; That was an indication of what local bodies were up against. The chairman: "The question of raising loans is well fixed, and the Government has done it."