OVERSEA DEBT

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 95, 5 April 1934, Page 4

OVERSEA DEBT

WHOLESALE CONVERSION Way Out of Depression AUCKLAND OPINIONS telegraph-Press Association.! AUCKLAND, April 5. “A successful conversion of our oversea debt would enable the depression in New Zealand officially to be declared off on a given date, and from that date all temporary reductions in salaries and wages could be restored,” declared the Mayor, Mr. G. W. Hutchison, today, in the course of a discussion on the interest being paid overseas on local bodies loans.

Mr. Hutchison said that in view of successful British and Australian conversions it would seem there should be no difficulty in arranging for the conversion of the whole of New Zealand's Government and local body debts. “It must by now be apparent that we can’t wait longer for a permanent recovery of the primary product markets,” said Mr. Hutchison. Mr. Allum, chairman of the Transport Board, eaid ho was firmly of the opinion that if a proposition embracing all local body debts in London were placed , before bondholders it would meet with success. The only way out of the present condition was some such adjustment. Short of a miracle the time was not far distant when local bodies would be placed in a position which everybody was attempting to avoid.