£13,000,000 LOANS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19140, 8 October 1936, Page 5

£13,000,000 LOANS

BORROWING PLANS FINANCE BILL PROVISION PENSION ADJUSTMENTS LOCAL BODY EXPENDITURE RESERVE BANK POWERS (Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this clay. " In the second Finance Bill of this session, introduced in the House of Ecpresentatives yesterday, authority is. given to borrow £6,000,000 for public works, £2,000,000 for the construction or reconstruction of main highways, and £5,000,000 for housing. These loans are to bear interest "at a rate which the Minister of Finance prescribes."

Racing, clubs, which have been entitled to deduct from the totalisator a duty of 12£ per cent of the total payment as commission; are, for. the period from August l", 1936,'ti1l July 31; 1937, to'bo entitled to deduct onefifth of the total duty as commission.

Several important amendments of the Pensions Act forecast by the Minister of Pensions are included in this measure, under which the widow's pension is payable in respect to the mother of any child under 15 years if the husband is subject to a reception order under the Mental Defectives Act, or is a voluntary boarder in a mental hospital.

Another pensions modification relates to the computation of miners' and invalidity pensions to married men who will, states the new clause, not be entitled to the allowance in respect of the wife if the latter is in receipt of the old-age pension. Deserted wives are also to become entitled to the same pension as widows with children under the age of 15. LOCAL, LOANS WITHOUT POLLS Another clause defines the method of computing the invalidity pension of a married woman. It will be diminished by £1 for every complete £1 of the total income of the applicant and her husband in excess of £lO4, and by'£l for every complete £lO of net capital value of the accumulated property of the applicant, and her husband. Possibly because .there, is .the. prospect of a long recess after the session ' ends, the Finance Bill extends from three months-to six months, the time during, which the Minister of Finance may authorise the expenditure of public revenue, though no Act may have been passed appropriating the amounts. This power will operate from March 31 till September 30, 1937. It is necessary to validate the payment from the Post Office of the sum in excess of their postal value re-, ceived for Anzac stamps and paid to i »--the- : Returned- Soldiers J Association. Of the clauses affecting local authorities, the most important is that giving power to.borrow without taking a rate- • -payers' poll-where the money is required for the relief of unemployment and is subsidised from the employment promotion fund. This is safeguarded by a provision that the intention to raise a loan must be advertised, and if 5 per cent of the ratepayers demand a poll, it shall be taken. STATE DEPARTMENT LOANS Electric power boards are similarly authorised to raise loans to extend reticulation, with the flame safeguard as in the previous case. The extent of hospital boards' authority to borrow on overdraft is enlarged so that it may equal one-fourth of its contributions from local authorities and the subsidy payable thereon. Local bodies expenditure in connection with public observances of the death of the late King George and the accession of King Edward is validated.

The Public Trustee's powers of investment are extended to include stock or bonds of the State Advances Corporation and to make advances up to 90 per cent, of the nominal value of securities .of the Government or local authorities, while the amount of advances against real estate is varied from the original limit of three-fifths to two-thirds value of security. Any business in the trustee's hands which is 1 part "of unclaimed property may be administered for two vears.

A similar variation in the margin required in mortgages is applied to the Government Insurance Department, •which may lend up to two-thirds the value of security, instead of threefifths.

LAND FOR PUBLIC WORKS The appointment of Mr. Mark Silverstcne, of Dunedin, as a director of the Reserve Bank is validated, notwithstanding the provision of the original Act that only persons Britishborn mav hold office.

The Reserve Bank is subject to several other clauses which empower it to underwrite securities of the State Advances Corporation and make advances, not only to the Treasury, but to any department of State, local authority, or public body. The conditions under which compensation for land taken for public works is assessed have been revised in a lengthy clause which requires the arbitrators to take into account and deduct from the compensation the increased value likely from the proposed work.

T\ie Minister of Public Works is also given authority to utilise lands for the department's operations without being required to purchase them, subject to the usual procedure regarding compensation claims.