RURAL CREDITS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18067, 19 April 1933, Page 4

RURAL CREDITS

REDUCTION OF INTEREST NEW RATE TO BE 6 PER CENT (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, last night. The amount of reduction to he made in the rate of interest on loans made by the Rural Intermediate Credit Board and by the co-operative intermediate credit associations will be j, per cent. The present late on all classes of loans made under the hoard’s lending methods is 6J, per cent., and from the beginning of next month the rate on existing ami new loans will therefore he 6 per rent. The hoard's three methods of financing arc through rural intermediate credit associations, by the granting of loans direct to farmers, and by the discounting of promissory notes. The latest annual report available, that for the year ended June 50, 1932, shows that loans made under all headings since the inception of the board to that date, amounted to £937,999. The exact amount of loans made since the beginning of July last was not available today, but the total sum lent out to date was stated to be in the vicinity of £1,000,000. A certain amount of this money has been repaid, but the great hulk of it is still out on loan. A reduction of J) per cent, on £1,000,000 represents a. saving of £SOOO.

In financing farmers through the Rural Intermediate Credit Associations, the hoard has been lending to these associations at the rate of 6 per cent., the associations re-lending to the farmers at 61 per cent. The lending rate to the associations will now he 5j per cent.

tons last year. Since 4600 tons wore sold in London in December there has been a clear,mice of stocks to make a clear market for the new season’s export. N.Z. INVESTMENT & MORTGAGE The report of the directors of the Now Zealand Investment. Mortgage, a nl Deposit Company. Limited, for the year ended March 31. states that the net profit on the year’s business was £2763 12s (id, to which is added £2934 2s 9d brought forward from last year, making a total of £6687 16s 3d. All interim dividend at the rate of 6 per cent per annum, amounting to £1666, was declared and paid for the halfyear ended September 30. 1932, leaving £4(522 16s 3d to lie dealt with. The directors now recommend payment of a further dividend at the rate of 2 per cenf_ making 6 per cent for the year ended March 31. which will absorb £710; that £5 00(1 he carried to reserve, which will then stand at £II.OOO, and that the balance of £2912 16s 3d be carried forward. DECLINE IN TEA DRINKING Reporting on tho tea trade in 1932, Brooke, Bond and Company, Limited, London, state that deliveries for British consumption show a fall of 6,750,000 pounds for the year, while the fulling-01l in exports totalled as much as 11,750,000 pounds. Tho United Kingdom stocks at the end of the year were estimated at 303,000,000 pounds, which must constitute a record for all time. Allowing for stocks at outports, it is estimated that there was sufficient tea in sight at tho end of February to cover eight months’ deliveries, Loth for home consumption and for export. It is pointed out that while overproduction in the tea industry is serious enough, the falling-off in consumption is far moro serious. No doubt this is duo in tho main to tho economic situation and to difficulties with exchange, but "if these conditions last long enough, people who used to drink tea will have lost tho desire to do so.” Another disastrous feature is tho strongly growing demand for the cheaper blends at the expense of good tea—a feature which is world wide, and again is no doubt duo to economic conditions. Tho problem, states tho report, will lu> to convert the people hack to good tea when better times arrive. During 1932 nearly 50 per cent, of tho tea sold in Great Britain was at Is per lb, or under, retail. EMPIRE FRUIT Fresh fruit from Umpire sources, which amounted to nearly 10,000,000 cwt, created a new record in .1932 in regard to imports into the United Kingdom. The total compared with 8,100,000 cwt in the previous year and 8.600,000 cwt in 1930. A record was also established in imports from Umpire countries 1 of the following separate fruits: —Apples, bananas, grapefruit, grapes, oranges, peaches, and plums. Empire imports in 1932 represented 37.7 per cent of aggregate imports of fruit from all sources. This is a larger proportion than ever before. and compares with 28.1 per cent in the previous year and 33.2 per cenT in 1930.