OVER £5,000,000

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 20, 21 December 1944, Page 6

OVER £5,000,000

LOANS TO EX-SERVICEMEN.

(Press Assn.) WELLINGTON; Doc. 21. A total of £4,862,729 was advanced to ex-servicemen and women in the form of loans up to the end of November,' said the Minister of Rehabilitation (Major Skinner) to-day. During November alone, the amount advanced was £415,076 so that the grand total would now be over £5,000,000.

Up to the end of November, 59S exservicemen and their dependants had been advanced a total of £1,910,557 in order to buy farms, while the total pd'-anced during November was £129,445. Almost 2000 ex-service personnel had been advanced loans for the erection or purchase of houses, the total amount lent for the purpose being £2,128,717. In November alone, the sum advanced' was £213,003. Business loans numbered 973, the total amount lent being £405,604, while the sum advanced during November was £37,220. During November a further 374 applicants were advanced interest-free loans to buy furniture, the sum involved being £33,977. The total amount lent was £413,947 to 4444 applicants. Loans had also been made for the r urchases of tools of trade. The total number of applicants to whom loans were advanced to the end of November was 8393, comprising 7533 men and nine women returned from overseas, 724 men and five women demobilised from home service, 41 merchant seamen, and 81 war widows and other dependants of servicemen.