MONEY URGENTLY WANTED

Southland Times, Issue 23773, 22 March 1939, Page 6

MONEY URGENTLY WANTED

LOAN WORKS IN THE CITY MAYOR AND TOWN CLERK .TO INTERVIEW MINISTER Unless some arrangement can be made by the City Council for the raising of £62,500 loan moneys required for works in the city, men employed under Scheme No. 13 will be put off. At present 253 men are employed by the council under Scheme No. 13.

This announcement was made by the Mayor (Mr J. R. Hanan) at last night’s meeting of the Invercargill City Council when the town clerk (Mr W. F. Sturman) reported that the Invercargill Savings Bank, from which the council obtained the first instalment, did not desire to take up any more of these loans, and he had communicated with the leading lending institutions in the Dominion and in Invercargill. “So far,” he added, “I have received four replies that the institutions are not prepared to take up the loan, while two have not replied definitely, and I am obtaining further data required by the State Advances Corporation before the matter can be considered by its board of management.” In its report to the council the Finance Committee stated that the town clerk had reported that he had been in correspondence with the Loans Board and had an application for moneys before the State Advances Corporation, and in consultation with the Mayor had written to the Minister of Finance asking for his assistance in obtaining the money from the State Advances Corporation and emphasising the urgency of the position. The committee recommended that the steps taken be approved and that the loan work at present in progress be continued to the end of this month, but expenditure of corporation moneys be kept to an absolute minimum. Unless it was possible to make satisfactory arrangements for further supplies of loan money in the meantime, it was further recommended that the work (other than water purification) under the water and drainage loan, should cease on March 31. As there were still some unexpended loan moneys available under the promotion of employment loan, it was recommended that such work could continue and employment be given to such of the men as could economically be used. Cr F. A. Webb said they all knew the difficulty that local bodies had at present in raising money and it was suggested that the Mayor and the town clerk should be empowered to go to Wellington at a moment’s notice. The Mayor: We propose to leave tomorrow morning. The position is serious, and unless we can fix up something pretty quickly men are going to be put off. The report was adopted.