LOCAL BODY LOANS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 79, 15 March 1934, Page 8

LOCAL BODY LOANS

Progress of Conversion PRIME MINISTER’S APPEAL (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, March 15. Stating that about one half of the total loans of local bodies in New- Zealand still remained to be converted, the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes, appealed to delegates at the annual conference of the Municipal Association of New Zealand at the official opening yesterday to continue in the conversions under the power given by the Local Authorities Interest and Loans Reduction Conversion Act. “The Act has been availed of by quite a large number of local bodies, but I want to impress on all of them the desirability of taking advantage of it so as to enable them to get their finances on a sound basis in the future,” he said. “Under the conversion part of the Act the position is es tablished for a number of years. But the reduction in the rate of interest depends on Parliament, and it may not continue.” The Loans Board up to the present time had dealt with over 20 millions in conversions, about, half of the total debt of all the local bodies, he continued. Thus there was still a long way to go for all local bodies to solidify their finances under the Act. Since the legislation had been passed the rate of interest had fallen substantially; the local bodies were having no difficulty in fulfilling their requirements at the rate of 41 per cent., and in some cases at. a still lower rate.