STATE ADVANCES

Evening Star, Issue 20422, 1 March 1930, Page 28

STATE ADVANCES

CHRISTCHURCH COMPLAINTS CLOSING DOWN OH LOANS [Special to tub 'Star.’] CHRISTCHURCH, February 28. The action of the • State Advances office in offering to those people who approach it for loans a less amount than the values would justify is a cause of complaint by a number of Christchurch people, and the suggestion has been put forward that, while for political reasons the department must give the impression that loans are being made, a policy has been adopted of offering less than is applied for, to discourage tho taking of the money. In one instance a business man who desired a loan under the section that provides for settlers’ advances applied for an amount that was three-fourths of the total expenditure estimated. The assessors’ recommendation was for a man of a little under this proportion, out the loan subsequently offered by the Department was of an amount more than £IOO below that recommended. I’lio result was that this man had to refuse tho loans, and one house less was built in Christchurch.

“ I was under the impression that a settler’s advance was for three-quarters of the total amount to be expended,” this man commented, “but I would have been able to carry on with a little less than that. However, the amount that was offered me was so much less that the proposition was not a good one. It meant a good deal of trouble in tho raising of another mortgage, and the putting in of more money than 1 was prepared to spend.” In another case a man who had applied for a worker’s loan rather optimistically set in train the preparations for tho building of Ins house, and found than that he was being granted over £IOO less than he had applied for. This man, a tradesman without a great deal of capital, would have been unable to carry on had not one of the parties interested in the selling end of the deal advanced on a second mortgage. _ This meant that ho was faced with having to pay off a second mortgage, which brought up his periodical payments to a gooff deal more than he had been given, to expect would bo tho case if he secured tho Government loan. In yet another case that was quoted it seemed that tho application might have been for more than tho Department was justified in lending, but tho opinion of those people interviewed, who had dealt with tho Department, was that tho position was not satisfactory. According to one man the Department is now lending as little as it can. The number of loans granted in tho new year has been much less than for a corresponding period at tho end of last year, and this has given rise to the opinion that onco more the State Vdvanccs Department is closing down as much as possible on loans, and that, while giving an iinpressison to tho contrary, it is anxious now to lend as litUo as possible.