THE FIVE MILLION LOAN

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 228, 9 January 1911, Page 7

THE FIVE MILLION LOAN

PREMIER ANGRY WITH CRITICS. The Right Hon. the Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, wlien passing through Timaru, was asked by a Post representative to give a reply to the Opposition criticism concerning the £s,oOfl,ooo_loan. ( Sir Joseph is reported as saying, in reply ;—"The criticism you mention is absolute rubbish. From New Zealand's point of view the loan was a distinct success. We got our money at the rate agreed upon, 3'/ 2 per rent., and we got it placed at a time when the Bank of England rate was 5 per cent, in London. Anvone talking about the loan not being a success must either 'be steeped in prejudice up to the eyes or else be blind to what is a distinctly successful operation covering an amount larger than New Zealand has ever dealt with before in a single loan. It does not require much in the" shape of knowledge to understand that when the Bank of England rate was 5 per cent, to the people at Home, and New Zealand got its money at V/« per eent., the transaction was a distinctly fine one from this country's point of view, and the critics of the loan must give the London financiers, who underwrote tinloan, credit for 'knowing their own business. If the New Zealand stocks were not good property, the underwriters would certainly not have underwritten I the loan at 3'/ s 'per cent., and unless they knew that, in the event of the whole amount not being taken up by the public, they could dispose of it privately, at advantageous periods, at a profit. And as a matter of fact, since then, considerable sales, at a profit, have taken place, The people who condemn the loan," said Sir Joseph in conclusion, "have apparently the one object in view, viz., to decry everything t'l.vt the Government does."