STATE ADVANCES.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18415, 23 June 1925, Page 8

STATE ADVANCES.

REPLY TO COMPLAINTS

(FBESS ASSOCIATION TBLEQBAiI.)

WELLINGTON, Juno 22,

The complaints mado in some quarters that the State Advances Oflico paid more attention to applications from rural districts than it did to those coming from the city wcro dealt with by the Hon. E. F. Bollard in a speech in tho north.

The number of applications received by the State Advances Office, said t!-e Minister, "is tremendous. AH canr.ct be dealt with, at once, but the best is done'in every case. All people, whether in the city or the country, receive equal opportunity to get cheap money. That fino institution the State Advances Offico has achieved a record which it could well boast of. The State Advances Department is prepared to r.s sist all persons who are industrious, and tho office seeks out the deservirg Here is a case, one of many, which speaks for itself. Tho Department heard of a couple with ten children living not far from Wellington, in a buil.ling which was little more than a shed. It sent an officer out to investigate, and the officer reported that it was a case deserving of consideration. The Department offered to advance the couple the money to buy a home. The wife, a woman of high principle, declined tho offer, saying that her father-in-law had lent the money to acquin) the present abode. She felt that \mtil that money was repaid she could not go in for another loan. "That is a case," added Mr Bollard, "of genuine selfreliance, a trait in the character of tLo true Nefw Zcalander.'?