ADVANCES TO WORKERS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1745, 9 May 1913, Page 5

ADVANCES TO WORKERS.

FACTS OF THE POSITION. £n article published in a local .antiReform newspaper yesterday characterised as "an absurdly grotesque bit of humbug" the Prime Minister's announcement that the limit of -advances under the workers' dwellings 6cheme had been, raised from *£300 to £400. The article went on to state that: "Workers have been, and are Bow, endeavouring to get an advance from the State for'the erection of a home. They cannot get • <£300. They cannot get .£2OO. They cannot, as a matter of fact, get a brass farthing." Finally, tho article stated that since the accession of the Reform Government it had been practically Impossible for a borrower to obtain a loan, whatever his security, and that the people *ho were looking to this Department to finance them through their modest undertakings had been forced to so into the tip en market and pay tho higli rate of interest demanded. In reforenco to tho foregoing, a return has been furnished to tho Prime Minister by tho Superintendent of the Advances Office (Mr. G. F. C. Campbell), in which he states that since January 1, 1913, advances to workers of sums of £300 or less Siaye been made' to 202 Applicants, and that furtheT applications aro coming in and are being granted weekly. Now, as has been stated by the Prime Minister, the limit has been raised to 'J2400, to meet tho cai'o of workers who find an'advanco of <£300 inadequate. i