Readers Write

Northern Advocate, 29 December 1938, Page 4

Readers Write

I understand this has been thresh- 1 ed out before, but another effort may! not be out of place. It concerns the difficulty experienced by visitors to Whangarei in finding their way! about the town. There should be a big notice near the post office indicating all places of importance and interest in the town-—direc-' tion marks to library, hospital, main* ['attractions, etc. ! It doesn’t do to let people think we expect them to know all about | our town. They want to think they] are being looked after, and I am sure ] this is one way in which we could! show our consideration for them 1 “PRIDE.” !

WHERE DO WE GO? |

What is all this talk about money being no good overseas? If a man takes a whole wallet full of pound

TRAVELLING i SENSIBLY.

notes to Australia and expects tradesmen there to ex-

change them, he is asking for trouble. Surely people have sufficient intelligence to make sure their money is properly exchanged before they enter a country. Perhaps, however, they have so much money they don’t know what to do with it, and just “splash it about.” If it’s good enough for New Zealand, they apparently say, it’s good enough for the same things elsewhere. But how many Whangarei business men would accept an Australian five pound note That’s the way to look at things.—“COMMONSENSE TRAVELLER.”

Mr F. Elliott has taken my answer to Mr Long’s question wrongly. When 11 said “we farmers can never pay all our debts,” > what I had in mind at the time was the £125,000,000 regisour farm lands. I think my statement has good foundation. We can still go a step further. We have a national debt we cannot pay. I have a mortgage that I have paid interest on for 34 years; the interest money I have paid is more than the amount of the loan, and the mortgage is still there. Despite this frank statement, which I feel has a good object behind it, I have never given Mr Elliott cause to state that “I published the fact that I am unfinancial”; his is a personal poke below the belt. However, I am vei'y pleased to hear him admit that everything the farmer produces is now worth more than it ever was in his recollection, with the exception of wool. This pleasure is because I have worked hard for the regime that has brought these good times about. I am also very pleased to see that the highest tribunal in the British Empire has chastised those propagandists who would, if they could, reverse these good times, to the horrible times we had five years ago. Mr Elliott says that I was incorrect when I stated that a certain bank manager attended a shareholders’ meeting of my compfajny and urged the suppliers to sign ia new joint and several, otherwise he might not pay out the bonus recommended by the directors. I say that my statement is substantially correct. I do supply the Hikurangi Company, I was at the meeting, and signed the bond. Let me take Mr Elliott’s version of what happened at the meeting and analyse it with commonsense. He says: “There was an occasion in the early days of the company when the directors considered that more shareholders should sign the joint and several guarantee which was held by the bank as security for finance provided, and an official of the bank brought the bond to meeting at the request of the directors, the chairman explaining the reason this was done, and several shareholders signed. The bond was cancelled many years ago, the company’s assets now being considered sufficient security for the overdraft. I say definitely that on the occasion referred to, the representative of the bank made no statement of any kind. The bank official did not stand up and address the meeting, but he did answer questions. This, together with the fact that the bond was held by the bank, that it was not trusted with our directors, and that it was Cancelled when we had enough security to satisfy the bank, shows that it was the bank’s urge and not our directors’. I

FARMERS ANL BANKS. + oitoinnf 1

The urge came to the shareholders, through our directors, from the bank, and it is ridiculous for Mr Elliott to try to make believe that our directors did. of their own sweet will, urge us to sign the bond. “Bank policy was the urge,” and all co-ops. get this squeeze when very young, or a bit sick.

In conclusion, Mr Editor, I want to say that my object in quoting the above instance that happened at my dairy company’s meeting quite some time ago was simply to use a local incident to illustrate how the old financial regime worked with us, compared with the finance we work with today. Yes, we paid 7 per cent in the old days, and had plenty of bother in 'arranging for same, while today we are financed with no bother for 11 per cent. And I would very much like to or hear, Mr Savage extending this easy finance to my butcher and baker in his New Year drive for the New Deal. —JOHN McBREEN.