FOR WHAT AMOUNT?

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 3012, 5 August 1916, Page 4

FOR WHAT AMOUNT?

NEW ZEALAND LOANS

Thero has been much speculation lately as to what amount will be raised locally under tho authority given in the Finance Act. The authority is to raise £16,000,000 for war purposes but the Finance. Minister has stated that this will not all ho borrowed locally—that tho amount of the loan will not be more than can safely be raised. The original authority was £12,000,000, and Sir Joseph Ward explained that tlie additional £4,000,000 was for money which had already been paid out by the Imperial Government on New Zealand's behalf. Inere is authority in the Act also for a million for public works, but tins is intended to cover unexpended balances. From a statement niti&c by the Minister for Railways recently, some people have drawn the h> ( ' MGi y e 0 local loan was to be for £8.000,000, but closer attention to the Minister s remarks leads to the belief that this inference is not justified. Enquiries also fail to support the assumption that the sum named will be obtained in a war loan. The only statement that would appear to find support at present is that the loan will not be for a sum less than £5,000.000.