STATE ADVANCES CORPORATE

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 September 1938, Page 9

STATE ADVANCES CORPORATE

THE YEAR’S ACTIVITIES [PEB PBEBS ASSOCIATKH..) WELLINGTON, September 6. The activities of the State Advances Corporation during the year ended March 31, 1938, are reviewed m the annual report of the board of management, which was presented in the House of Representatives to-day by Hon. W. Nash (Minister for Finance). The report covers the first complete year of administration by the board of mortgages taken over from the State Advances Office and the Department of "Lands and Survey. The report shows that the corporation had 64,994 loans on mortgage on March 31, 1938, of a total value of £49,533,720. Advances on current account at the same date numbered 2631, valued at £1,256,299. There were, on March 31, 1288 local body loans, of an aggregate value _ot £5,056,845. Interest collectable during the year amounted to £2,433,100. “There has been a steady flow of new loan applications duiing the year,” states the report, “and although the board has given special consideration to loans required for housing and farms, securities taken cover a wide range, both in class and location. With very few exceptions, loans have been granted on a table repayment basis, on terms ranging from 10 years During the financial year 2480 loans of a total value of £1,720,818, were authorised by the corporation foi Residential purposes, as compared will 2953 loans, valued at £1,889,454, the previous year. Last year the corporation authorised 707 loans, valued at £1,283,728, for farm purposes, as against 1186 loans, valued at £2,496,412 for this purpose the year before. The greater number and higher value of applications for the -year ended March 31, 1937, is attributed first to the fact that this period, followed closely on the establishment ot the corporation and the announcement of the new terms of lending, and second, the pending removal of the moratorium on mortgages which had been in operation for a number of years.

REVERTED PROPERTIES The report states that the number of urban and suburban properties administered by the corporation as mort-gagee-in-possession increased from 4022 as at March 31, 1937, to 4082 a year later. The book value of reverted rural securities was shown at £316,493/12/4. There were quite a number of these holdings in deteriorated areas where further expenditure was not warranted, and mortgages on properties of this nature would ultimately require to be substantially written down.

The gross revenue from all sources for 1037-38, slates the report, was .£2,433,100, as compared with £l,083,513 for the previous year, the increase being due mainly to the inclusion of interest on discharged soldiers’ settlement loans for the full period. Interest charges (in which there is also an increase arising from the issue of additional stock to the Government in respect of further assets taken over) increased from £1,236.282 to £1,532,802. Gross profit for the year was £900,298 as compared with the previous year’s figure of £747,231. “The trading activities of nations

are so independent that, major events in the political or commercial life in any one country are inevitably. refleeted in others,” say the report, and this is particularly so in a country such as New Zealand, which has built up a specialised export trade in primary products, and is consequently affected by overseas markets and reciprocal trade agreements. Cheap money is still, for various reasons, the dominating factor in the economic policies of the great financial nations; but the effect of this factor is minimised by the lack of confidence that prevails generally.”