BORROWED MONEY

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 83, 9 March 1925, Page 5

BORROWED MONEY

NEED TO GO CAREFULLY. STATEMENT BY MINISTER. Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, March 7. A request that practically unrestricted borrowing under the Discharged Soldiers’ Settlement Act be favourably considered by the Government was put beforo the Hon. A. D. McLeod, Minister of Lands, by a deputation from the Christchurch Returned Soldiers’ Association. The Minister said tho matter could be summed up in a few words. Was tho country prepared to go on the market again and raise largo loans further to carry on tho lending of money under the Discharged Soldiers’ Settlement Act? It was a question he could not answer as an individual Minister, as it was a matter for tho Government to decide. His cwn opinion was that the country to-day was br.irowing a good deal more than it should do. The country had borrowed about £2S.CCC,OOC for the purpose of assisting soldiers and had made a greater effort than any other country in proportion to its population. A great heal has been lent out at a rate of interest which, if prompt payments were made, worked out at less than it had cost the country to get. He wa? quite sure that if the Government decided tomorrow to bring the early provrtions of tlie Act into operation again, another £25,000,000 would be require'!. That was a big statement to make, but he knew the extent to which the privilege of cheap money was sought after. practically every soldier would apply aa he would have a Tight to. Mr Leadley: Do you mean £2S,CCO,GCO for houses alone?

Mr -. McLeod replied that he meant houses and mortgages. As far as the money was concerned, tho Government of the country had come to the conclusion that it had gone aa far as it oould reasonably go. ... With regard to the money coming m.jn repayments, he was of the opinion that it should be earmarked until all applications from soldiers had ceased. (Hoar, hc-ar. The statement had been made that amounts totalling three-quarters of a million pounds were being received, but up to date there was nothing like the amount coming in that was necessary to meet all the charges and other outgoings. The men who had not taken on obligations were free from the penalty of losing every sixpence they had. Hundreds and thousands of men, more or less with money of their own, apart from what the Government had lent them, would have to walk off their farms and lose everything if the Government did not grant them additional money to keep them going. Not one single penny of the money coming in was going outside the discharged soldiers’ settlement account at the present moment. His struggle at the present time was to get sufficient money to keep the men going who had already been assisted. If he did the correct thing ho would go to Parliament and ask for half a million pounds a year for the purpose of further assisting these men, but he knew if he did that an amendment would bo moved in the direction of bringing the full act into operation again! The Government had to go along very carefully. Referring to the operation of the State Advances Act. the Minister had said that when the measure had first come into force 4he department had been simply swainped with applications within ten weeks of the Act coming into force. Applications for loans totalling £18,000,000 for housing and lands had been reoeived, £»nd sinqo than further applications for £7,000,000 and £8,000,000 had . come in. They were now rapidly coming to the stage when the Government would lose money if it did not increase the rate of interest. In fact, the Government, to-flay was dealing with applications reoeived in May- last, and over £11,000,000 had been advanced during the sixteen months in which tho Act had been in operation.