THE RURAL BONDS.

Grey River Argus, 25 August 1928, Page 8

THE RURAL BONDS.

AND THE BANK OF NEW ZEALAND Speaking in th e Budget debate, Mill. E. Holland (Leader of the Opposition) said: Acting on the Prime Minister's assurance that the information would be found in the Monthly Abstract 1 have searched the pages of that publication for June and July—the two latest issues—and I cannot find any statement in either of them with regard to the sale of rural bonds or the advances made by the Rural /Advances Brand:.

Why should we not laive this informa tion ! We publish tli e advances made by the ordinary branch of the State Advances Department; those figu r :s are available, and, by the way, they show a remarkable reduction in the advances to workers for home-build-ing and advances to settlers for primary production. But, while I can g’t these latter figures up tc a certain date, I can get no information at all with respect to the Rural Advances Blanch. The Minister of Finance says —and this is all the information I can obtain—“lncluding £751,900 under the Rural Advances Act. th e Department paid over loans amounting to £2,793 ? - 030 during the year.” As I have said even that amount is a huge reduction on the previous year’s advances. why is it that we cannot get details in connection with rural advances? Is there any explanation as to why the figures relating to them are not published? Air Downie Stewart: As a matter of fact, I did not know that they were not published.

Mr Holland: That only hears out what I say—the Statistical Department needs overhauling. A most unsatisfactory position was shown to exist on a previous occasion when me private memboi ~f the House had those figure's n:.rde available tc him and no other member waj to geV them. I have not been <•’ !e to get any statistical information with respect to them since. I am still waiting for the Minister of Finance to inform the House of the amounts in which the rural bonds were taken up. I am still waiting to know the ■nmouii ■ taken up by th e Bank of New Zealand. The Minister has, I know, admitted that the Bank of New Zealand under wrote Hip issue for £93 10s. Air Downie Stewart: No. that is not so. 1 noticed that the hmi. gentleman made that statement in Palmerston Nori h. Air Holland: I should be sorry' if I misrepresented the position, but I certainly understood the hon. gentleman

to say that. Alp Downie Stewart: No. lh e BanK underwrote at £94 10s. Air Holland: But they get one per cent, for underwriting? , Air Downie Stewart: That docs not affect the price they paid for the bonds. Air Holland: It certainly does noi. affect the price Hie public paid fo Hie bonds. Air Downie Stewart: Or the Bank. Mr Holland: The Bank wouid get. the bonds for £94 10s and then it would receive one per cent for underwriting them. It seems to nip that under thos e conditions they would get their own bonds for £93 10s. However. I think we should have full information in regard to these matters, and 1 hope the Minister of Finance will agree with nip when I say that th? details of every State transaction sho iiq appear in the Al on tidy Abstract or Year Book. I am afraid we are cutting out altogether too much in format ion from both these publications, Anyone who tries to follow thp statistics of to-day will be called upon to undertake an enormous amount of unnecessary work—work which should bp done by the Statistical Department.