EXTENSIVE BORROWING.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2298, 17 September 1908, Page 2

EXTENSIVE BORROWING.

QUESTIONS IN PARLIAMENT. [Special to “Times.”] WELLINGTON, Sept. 16. Mr. Laurenson to-day asked the Prime Alinister whether his attention; had been drawn to the delay which at ])resent borrowers from the Advances tp. Settlers and the. Advances to Workers Departments are experiencing in getting their loans, and would he ascertain what is the cause of these delays, and if it is owing to a shortage of money. f Would he see that more funds are put at the disposal of both of these very important Departments? iSir Joseph Ward l replied that as the amount actually paid to borrowers since the Ist of April, 1908, amounted to £906,102 (that is for a period of about five months), the rate at which the Departments had been lending iti far beyond the average for the year, and necessarily the amounts must he spread. Air Laurenson, speaking on the question, was very severe in his condemnation of certain of the hanks doing business in New Zealand. “Practically all the hanks, except the Bank of New Zealand,” he said, “had been putting oil; the screw in the most unreasonable manner, with the result that settlers and workers were driven to extremity, and 1 went to the only place where they, could get help, viz., the Government Lending Department. This showed ’ the magnitude of the crisis through which the country had been passing.”