RURAL ADVANCES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19793, 17 March 1927, Page 8

RURAL ADVANCES

THE NEW SCHEME MR W. J. POLSON APPOINTED TO BOARD. In accordance with the provisions of last session’s legislation, Air W. J. Polson, of Wanganui, as representing the interests of the persons engaged in the production of primary products in New Zealand, has been appointed an additional member of the State Advances Board, for the purposes of the new Rural Advances Branch business. The Rural Advances Act, which will come into operation on April 1 next, provides for the establishment of a separate branch of the State Advances Office—the Rural Advances Branch—with extended authority to grant loans secured on mortgages or rural lands, and having power also to issue bonds secured on those, mortgages. The maximum advance is to be £5500, exclusive of any chattel mortgage granted by the. Department, and the advances are to be limited to two-thirds of the value of the security where freehold land is concerned or two-thirds of a lessee’s interest in leasehold land. The conditions of advances are to be the same as those ordinarily applying in connection with the office. Provision of Funds. A separate account is to be kept, and the provisions of the State Advances Act, relating to the temporary transfer of funds from one branch of the office to the other, are to apply to the Rural Advances Branch. The superintendent is authorised to provide additional funds by the issue of bonds of an amount approved by the Minister of Finance, these to constitute a floating charge on all the assets of the branch, including all the advances granted under the new Act. The rate of interest is to be prescribed by the Minister of Finance. The aggregate amount of the bonds is not to exceed the capital value of the mortgages for the time being held by the branch. Bonds may be issued in London as well as in New Zealand. Trustees arc permitted to invest in the bonds, and the superintendent is empowered to accept the bonds in repayment of loans granted under the terms of the Act. It. is also provided that the principal moneys secured by the bonds, etc., together with the interest, are to be payable out of the Consolidated Fund, and will be recoverable from the Rural Advances Branch.

Mr Polson, who is president of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, was a member of the commission which investigated the operation of rural credit systems abroad.