MONEY STRINGENCY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2301, 21 September 1908, Page 2

MONEY STRINGENCY.

UNUSUALLY HEAVY DEMAND. THT GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS. (Special to “Times.”) WELLINGTON, Sept. 20. Tho demand for money continues to be greater than the! supply, and members of Parliament are in receipt of numerous letters complaining of the duliculty of getting supplies from tho Government Lending Department. In Saturday’s “Post” there appears a letter signed “Elector,” in which this fact is referrred to. “For weeks past,” says the writer, “tlio Government Department has had no money' to lend,” and he proceeds to say that many wlio counted upon getting loans, have been put in awful straits, and some nearly ruined. A “Post” representative made inquiries, and it was officially explained that for the past twelve months the Department has been overwhelmed with requests for money, applications being received at the rate of .about sixty per day. Every effort has been made to oope with the demand and loans were restricted, some three months ago, to a maximum of £SOO each, in accordance with a provision contained in the Government Advances to Settlers Act, providing that applications for loans not exceeding £SOO shall have priority over applications for larger sums. Notwithstanding this, applications continued to roach the Department as fast as ever, and the amount paid to borrowers for a period of five months from the Ist April last totalled £906,102, a rate far beyond the average for a previous similar period. Obviously it became necessary to pay over advances in the order in which the relative mortgages were completed. It is admitted that under the circumstances some inconvenience lias been- caused; hut it is claimed that the extravagant language of “Elector” is not justified.