THE FIVE MILLION LOAN.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1018, 6 January 1911, Page 4

THE FIVE MILLION LOAN.

PREMIER ANGRY WITH CRITICS. The Right Hon. the Prime Minister, Sir Joseph .Ward, when passing through Timaru, was asked by a "Post" representative to give a reply to the' Opposition criticism .concerning the JC5,000,G00 loan. Sir Joseph is reported as saying, in reply:—"The criticism you mention is absolute rubbish. From New Zealand's point of view the loan was a distinct success. We got our money at tho rate agreed upon, 34 per cent., and .we got it placed at a time when tho Bank of Kngland rate was 5 per cent, in Loudon. Anyone talking about tho loan not being a success must either be - steeped in prejudice ,up to the eyes or else ba blind to what is a distinctly successful operation covering ail amount larger than Jicw Zealand has ever dealt with before in a single loan. It docs not require much in the shape of knowledge to understand that when tiic Bank of England rato was 5 per cent, to the people at Home, and New Zealand got its money at 35 per cent.,, the transaction was a dictinctly fine 0110 from this country's point cf view; and the critics of Hie loan must give the London financiers, who underwrote the loan, credit for knowing their own business. If tho New Zealand stocks were, not good property, tho underwriters would certainly not have underwritten the loan at. 3! per cent., and unless they knew that, in the event of the whole amount not being taken up by the public, they could dispose of it privately, at advantageous periods, at a profit. And as a matter of fact, sinco then, considerable sales, at a profit, have taken place. The people who condemn tho loan," said Sir Joseph Ward iA conclusion, "have apparently tho one object in view, viz., to decry everything that the Government docs,"