THE FINANCIAL POSITION

Evening Star, Issue 14529, 3 December 1910, Page 1

THE FINANCIAL POSITION

MORE ABOUT THE FIVE MILLION LOAN. AN OPTIMISTIC FORECAST. [From Ocr Parliamentary - Reporter.] WELLINGTON. December 5. A further statement wa-. made by the Prime Minister yesterday afternoon in the House of Representatives respecting the live million Fan. The criticism of the Leader of the Opposition, made earlier in the debate, was. he said, absolutely unjustified. This cpunlty had every reason to be pioud of the Hot at ion of the- loan of live millions. When the loan was undertaken the Bank of England rate was 5 per cent. New Zealand's loan at 3j per cent,. had been taken up at £9B ICR. A writer in one paper had declared tnat this lean had been underwritten lay the Bank of New Zealand. The whole oj ‘ ie underwriting had been done in London. I h" Government did their hanking itii the Bank of New Zealand, but tney hj; d ia-rn been asked to underwrite the loan. Even i• ihe Bank had wanted to ’i wouid not have been allowed, strong as it happily was He doubted if any New Zeciad mail had ever been more successfully floated than this. Mr Masaty; “ Don't forget tin- 2 |cr cent, depreciation.” Sir Joseph M ard : Iho under rriicrs at 1 ' making no kf.i in letting it out to their clients. The loan is too strongly held to allow good stock of a. good country to unload upon the market except to the advantage of the holders. The-ie is nothing to regiet. Our finances ate fixed for twelve months. Continuing, .'nr Joseph said he was perfectly convinced that had a tw,million loan been placed upon toe market the icsult would not have been at satirfaclorr as this. When in England last ye,.i he' had made inquiries amongst leading financial men ot the pctAbilitiof attaching to the flotation oi a four million loin, end a.'tc!tained that a four million loan cruel bo undertaken with much hotter results Iran a two million loan. It was ridiculous ti, comiarc our position wiilt that- of Jasmania, as Mi' Massey had done. 1 mania's operations were a more bagatelle compared to New Zealand s. The financia’ operations in regard to Tasmania for ' year would bo about equal to tills Dominion's for a month. Sir Joseph again expressed the opinion that it was. a high compliment to New Zealand that the loan had been secured upon such satisfactory terms. —Buoyant Revenue,— The Prime Minister then proceeded to inform the House of the splendid state of the country's financial position, giving a statement of the revenue for the eight monthended 80th November. 1910, com j Hired with the eight months ended November 00. 1909. The figures quoted proved that there had been increases as follows:—Customs:, £247,775 ; Stamps (Stamp Department and Post and Telegraph), £168,289: Poet and Telegraph (cash receipts). £10.869; Land and Income Tax. £12.087: heer duly. £1,606: railways, £184.976; marine. £2,017; territorial. £31,463. In registra lion and of her toes t hero was a decrease of £797. and in miscellaneous a dei reuse oi £2.658, Altogether the revenue, for the eight mouths showed an increase of £645,030 over the previous eight months.— (Applause.) With the circulation of no much money there would be an even greater activity in trade; in fact, he believed that there would be greater activity dating the next twelve months than Lad been the case for many years past.—Hlcar, hear.; Mr Denies staled tiiai Hie H-ni;e had not yet beet! informed a»at the toil of undi vwiiting the whole M (he iln.ooo.Coo Joan, and complained tn.u there wore other points on which dctiils Mould be Dearly furnished. It fiooraed that it had (o-t- 5i per cent, to raise some of thiß country s loans', and this war- an enormous charge, especially as it' did iki include the cwt of conversion. A.eeidin i to Ine Prime Mini--fee's argument about the cliwi-pness of riding large loans, New Zealand should I"' going in for a ten million loan, Mr Hcrriee rcniarked ironically. Sir Joseph Man! : " Ire five million loan liar b< en t-ecured at 31 per cnt. Mr Hen ies : "I wa.s referring to an old traiisa* tion when 1 spoke if it costing 5] per cent, to raise a loan."