ELECTRICITY ON FARMS.

Matamata Record, Volume XIII, Issue 1112, 7 April 1930, Page 1

ELECTRICITY ON FARMS.

FINANCING SETTLERS. Department Dodging the Point. Another refusal to agree to the Thames Valley Power Board’s proposals for assisting settlers, who had mortgages from the State Advances Department, to install electricity on their farms on easy terms was contained in a letter received from Wellington by the board at Tuesday’s meeting. The board had proposed that settlers should pay a deposit of only one-third of the cost of installation, but the State Advances Department demanded a deposit of 50 per cent. The Acting-Minister of Finance wrote thaf he had again communicated with the Superintendent of the Advances Department on the subject of financing the installation of electricity on farms. The Superintendent recognised that the installation of electricity on a farm was an acquisition to its efficient working, but considered it was only an asset to the mortgagee after the cost of the installation had been paid for by the settler. The Superintendent stated that his experience in a number of cases where installation had been effected on the time payment system was that the Department had eventually been obliged to find funds sufficient to clear off the arrears of the instalments. This was one reason why the Department considered that at least 50 per cent of the cost of installations by time payment should be paid in cash by the settler. Regarding the board’s remarks that State . Advances settlers were penalised owing to the Department not agreeing to the board’s proposals as other lending institutions had done, the Superintendent pointed out that loans by the Department on farms were advanced on the liberal basis of up to 75 per cent of the value of the applicant’s interest in the property. Such being the case, it was deemed that the settler, who had obtained such liberal financial* assistance from, the Department could not be said to be penalised because he was asked to find 50 per cent of the cost of the installation of electricity on his farm. “We can’t do anything further in the matter,” .commented the chairman. . i Mr. J. Price (Matamata)": Still they have dodged the point. They say they grant 75 per cent of the applicant’s interest in his farm, but it is possible for a man to have to apply to them when he has only a 20 per cent mortgage. They have nothing to lose and a lot to gain. He thought the .Department had a hard and fast rule, and if the board’s case was considered on its merits it would be seen to be very reasonable. The chairman said the board ha’d decided at a previous meeting to forward a remit on the subject to the conference of power boards. Members agreed that the board’s representative should give the question of financing settlers great attention at the forthcoming conference.