PUBLIC DEBT EXTINCTION.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10514, 23 July 1910, Page 1

PUBLIC DEBT EXTINCTION.

PRIME MINISTER'S SINKING FUND SCHEME. By Telegraph./ (Special to the Oamaru Mail.) Wellington, July 22. ' "Ail' Act io' : authorise the creation of sinking, funds for the extinction (5f the public debt of New Zealaud" is the explanatory- short title of the Public Debt Extinction Bill introduced yesterday by the Prime Minister. A beard is to be' constituted for the administration of the sinking funds consisting of the Commissioners of the Public Debts Sinking Fund's established by section 47 of the New Zealand Loans Act, 1908, with the addition of the Superintendent of the State Guaranteed Advances Department. The Minister of Finance or his deputy shall be chairman of the board. "Within thirty days after the end of each financial year the Contrqller and .Auditor-General shall furnish, the Minister with a certificate showing (a) the total amount of the public debt of New Zealand and (b) the sum which if invested each year at compound interest at £4 per centum per annum (or such rate of interest as may be determined under the provisions of section 10 of this Act) would in 75 years equal such amount. After March 31st 1915, the interest, instead of being calculated at £4 per cent., shall be the actual average net interest earned by the funds during the preceding three years. When the Act comes into operation the payments on account of the War and Defence Loans Sinking Funds shall cease. —lnvestment of Funds.—

The new sinking fund shall be invested in loans to settlers, workers, and to local .authorities under the piovisions of the New Zealand State Guaranteed Advances Act, such loans to be granted for any period not exceeding ten years in of loans to settlers or workers, or forty years in the case of local authorities, or may be granted on the instalment scheme repayable in any term not exceeding 36-i years. No part of such moneys shall at any time be invested in New Zealand Government securities, an it is provided that all moneys paid to the Superintendent and all accumulations thereen shall be held on trust for the repayment of the public debt and for no other purpose whatever. If the whole of the accumulated funds cannot be invested' as mentioned above the surplus money, under the direction of the board, be applied to the purchase, at or below par, for cancellation of any stock or debentures charged upon the consolidated revenue. When loans have thus been repaid a statement shall be made showing the annual interest thus saved and the annual amount required thereafter to preserve the growth of the sinking fund. The <xpenses of administering the Act are to be paid out of the ConsolidatedFund. An annual statement shall be made regarding the fund to Parliament, and it is provided that the moneys shall be kept apart from other moneys of.the State Guaianteed Advances Office in a branch to be called the Public Debts Sinking Funds Branch.