INTEREST ON DEBENTURES

Evening Star, Issue 21582, 30 November 1933, Page 9

INTEREST ON DEBENTURES

THE WANGANUI POWER BOARD APPEAL TO NEW SOUTH WALES NIGH COURT Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. SYDNEY, November 29. The High Court is hearing the appeal of the Wanganui-Rangitikei Power Board against the decision of the New South Wales Equity Court in the board’s claim for a reduction, of interest under the New South Wales Interest Reduction Act on certain debentures for moneys borrowed troin the Australian Mutual Provident Society. The grounds of the appeal are that the court was in error in declaring that the Interest Reduction Act did not apply in the case, and that the board was not entitled to the benefit of the Act in the payment of interest. [The Equity Court dismissed, with costs, the suit of the Wanganui-Rangi-tikei Power Board against the A.M.P. Society. Sir John iiaivcv’s judgment said it was clear that the parties intended the contract to bo a New Zealand contract from first to last, and that it was never intended that the obligation to pay interest at Sydney was to be subject to any law which the State of New South Wales might make. Sir John Harvey held that if a resident of New South Wales borrowed money in England, contracting to pay interest for it there, and returned to New South Wales before bis creditor could sue him in England, it obviously could not be set up if tho creditor followed him to New South Wales that ho was discharged from obligations to pay the full interest by reason of the existence of the New South Wales Interest Reduction Act, It was too clear for words that these loans and security were to be interpreted and enforced according to New Zealand law. The fact that the debentures were made payable in Sydney was a mere accident, and whether that was an obligation which was an inherent part of the contract and could not be varied except by the consent of both parties seemed to be unnecessary to consider.l