OVERSEAS INTEREST

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18206, 29 September 1933, Page 10

OVERSEAS INTEREST

SOUTHLAND'S CASE REFERENCE IN HOUSE (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, last night. During the Address-iu-Roply debate in the House to-day by Air. P. A. tie la I’errelle (Coal., Awarua) dealt at length with the position of the Southland Power Board in relation to the payment of interest on its London loan. He said that the board had borrowed the money direct from London, whereas other boards had received financial assistance from loan money borrowed by the Government, upon which Soutblancteis must necessarily have to pay their share in tile way of taxation. Local bodies, with the exception of the Southland Power Bearil, had received the benefit of the 20 per cent, reduction in interest, and that fact, taken together with the increased exchange, made a gap oi 45 per cent, between tile respective positions of the Southland Power Board, and other boards. Mr. de la Perrelle- added that the Southland board bad had legal advice that it could meet its indebtedness to its London bondholders in New Zealand currency, and he considered that- if a thing was legal, it should be just. H the board bad to pay in sterling, it would mean that the ratepayers would have to find an extra £20,000 annually. The Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes': How much did they benefit from the exchange'.' Mr. de la Perrelle said tluit it had been stated that the Southland farmers had benefited to the extent ol £ISO,DUO, hut the Southland farmers did not constitute the whole of the consumers.