ADVANCES TO SETTLERS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIII, Issue 10650, 10 May 1895, Page 5

ADVANCES TO SETTLERS.

AUSTRALIAN COMMENT. I [Special to Pbess Association.! I SYDNEY, Mat'9. The Daily Telegraph, referring to tha Brisbane Courier’s article oa tho Advances to Settlors Act of New Zealand, eaya it hardly thinks so much gilt-edged securities s will go to tho Government lending office las tha Courier imagines. It is quite posI aibla to place first-class mortgages at six I par cent, or even below that, at the present I time, and therefore it is probable I that tha more doubtful securities will I bo transferred to the State-lending office. I The effect will bo to level down all rates I to the official rate, and tha lending eomI panics will only taka the best properties oa I such terms. Rates are slowly coming I down, and they would be lower oven than I they ate now if it were not that the re- | constructed institutions have to pay par I cent. Banking and mortgage companies I will be conducted more economically and [ on a different basis in the future, but still |it is quite likely that the Government f department will supplant a good deal of £ the capital now employed in tha Advances 'to Settlers Act of New Zealand. The political aspect of the whole proceeding is | very serious, and the result of the experi- | ment can only be tested by tune. A strictly non-political and capable admini- | stration must be eEssential to its success.