FARMING LOANS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 89, 21 June 1946, Page 2

FARMING LOANS

REVISION OF LIMITS

REHABILITATION AID

A revision of the limits to which it will approve loans at concession rates to eligible ex-servicemen farmers under certain conditions has been made by the Rehabilitation Board.

“In the past farming loans have generally been limited to £SOOO for dairying, £6250 for sheep and mixed farming with an inclusive advance up to £ISOO for the purchase of stock and plant,” says a statement from the Board. “It has been the Board’s policy to treat the dairying limit as divided between £3500 for land and £ISOO for stock and plant, and the sheep and mixed farming limit as £SOOO and £1250 respectively. However, where the applicant for a loan had been able to provide some cash from his own resources but still had financial needs in excess of the Rehabilitation limits at . concession rates, the Board had sometimes permitted him to devote more than the usual £SOOO or £3500 to the purchase of land. This has been in pursuance of treating such application on its individual merits.

“Experience with such cases has led the Board to the conviction that where an applicant for a farming loan could provide his stock and plant debt free and without it being used as security for any other loan there seemed no valid reason why the applicant should not be able to secure a loan at concession rates up to the full £SOOO or £6250 solely for the purpose of land. The Board accordingly decided to permt loans up to the higher limits in such cases. “Two things should be understood; first the extended limit are permited only where stock and plant are debt-free and are not used as securty for another loan, secondly the Board does not require the stock and plant as security for its approval of such a loan which would be advanced on the land alone.

“It naturally followed from the above that the Board should give further consideration to the case of applicants for loans solely for the purchase of stock and plant: the cases envisaged were those where a man desiring to go sharemilking was obliged to provide his own herd or where he took up farming on leasehold land which could not be offered as security for a loan to purchase stock and plant. Though it was held that the usual £ISOO limit for stock and plant would cover the needs of most dairy farmers with whom the Board had dealings it was felt that finance required by sheep and mixed farmers for stock and plant might reasonably be expected to go as high as £2500. Accordingly it was decided that figure should be the new limit where an eligible sheep or mixed farmer needed a loan for the purchase of stock and plant and where he was unable to offer land or other acceptable security. The new limit also applies where a sheep or mixed farmer owns his land and requires Rehabilitation assistance only for the purchase of stock.”