MONEY FOR FARMERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18374, 14 April 1923, Page 10

MONEY FOR FARMERS.

PUBLIC TRUST ADVANCES. FIFTY PER CENT. MARGIN SPECIAL VALUATIONS. Recently published statements that money for advances on farming securities is practically unobtainable are said to be not quite correct as applied to the Auckland district. Commenting on the statements referred to, the deputy public trustee for Auckland, Mr. R. F. Ward, stated yesterday that the public trust office had been advancing money on farm properties as far as the available funds would permit. Naturally, as the office was administering trust funds, every care had to be exercised to ensure a sufficient margin of security. Advances were made up to fifty per cent, of a special Government valuation, of the property for loan purposes. The policy of the office was to invest the funds as far as possible "in such manner as would assist in the development of the country and its industries. The public trustee could make advances up to three-fifths of the value of the security, but for farm lands the department had adopted the fifty per cent, standard as offering a safe margin. The office was now investing more money than it had been doing for some years. The Hamilton and other Auckland offices were lending freely on broad acres. The rate of interest charged by the department was 6 per cent. Referring to the scope of the operations of the public trust office throughout the Dominion, Mr. "Ward said that during the year ended March 31, 1922, the office had advanced £1,393,176. The figures for the year just ended were not yet available, but they would total considerably more' than "the previous year. Of a total of over £13,000,000 invested by the public trust office at March 31, 1922, about £11,500,000 was in mortgages and local body debentures. The bulk of the mortgage money was on farm securities.