A BASELESS CHARGE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1833, 20 August 1913, Page 8

A BASELESS CHARGE.

•■ABOUIf/i. treasury bill. ' .... MR. FRASER EXPLAINS. ••; The. - Hon. rW. -FRASER (Minister. ..for • ■public Works) asked to be permittedto a statementrHo; would like,- he, said, ' toi-correct id' statement made by a', mem- : bejrpf the House, Russell, on ; Fnday •JaSt;. when .-he,. (Mr'. Eraser)' -was absent : from the House. "My only-knowledge, of ' ..what'occurred/!, he said, ,f is froiri what I-.saw in- tlije 'New ;Zealand --Tunes/ I .wish to know from tho honourable gentleinan ( If that report is correct 'i" '• Mr. Russell; It ,is ~not,.con-ect -, - Mr. say the.'! New Zea'JojkL- .Times',', Vila's ."doner a 'very;.wrong thing' in putting'into .a-nieiuber s mouth. Words 'whack' that-m'embeiv did not utter. Mr. Masiey; That is quite usual. : Mr. I'raser: It does not surprise me to \noW 'that the "New •'Zealand ■ Times Made, a -statement that,.was not correct, ut®would surprise me more if it made one that Was correct. • s.Mr.- Lauxenson: It would surprise mo to tead .a-' statement- in. The Dominion that was-correct. • ... ' • . . Mr. :Fraser then quoted the following extract from the "New Zealand, Times' "Mr. Russell then went on to refer to the recent loan floated by the Government from the New Zealand Loan and. Mer.cantile Company. The Prime Minister had stated quite lately that the company ■ tod been in. tlie position of. having the. jnoney : on its hands, and ;tho Government had taken 1 advantage of it'and borrowed But on looking into the matter, he (Mr. Russell) had found that one ot the biggest shareholders in the company . -was a member of the Ministry, the Hon. William I'raser." Mr. Russell: I said "director. Mr. Eraser: I will come to the question of director presently. Ho went o.n to'explain that he', did : not own a share in Hhe'New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, and that-he had never owned one in his life. Ho had read in ll'iib Dominion- that Mr. Russell had said he-was a-director of-the-company.- That ■was ."perfectly .true,' but. the: Board of' fli-rectors-to -which-lie belonged was really a board of advice, and so far as he was aware nono of the other members of it were shareholders. At a meeting of that board one day it came up in the course of business that the Loan and Mercantile had .£50,000 that it would not require for -six months. Ho said nothing to tho other directors, but having in mind the difficulty tho Government had had ingranting loans to settlers, local bodies, and other people, lie told the Minister for I'inance that tho company had tliu.money idle, and that if it would suit him to take it he would be able to. get it. Tho Minister approved of tho suggestion. The reason that the Government'merely wanted money for six months was that the Minister for finance was in Loudon ananging a Joan, but the money "was r.ot then available. It was : well known that when the loan money came .to hand, the Government would be able to the money..at tho due date lo the Loan and Mercantile. In tho meantime the settlers wanted money. Mr. i'raser said he had done no move than this; ho had. taken no part in the negotiations concerning tho matter. Of course the inference desired to be mado was that lie influenced the Minister, for Finance to take the money 1 from the' Loan and .Mercantile because the company had no use for it. This was simple nonsense. Anyone 'with any knowledge of business affairs must know- that between big firms loans were frequently made for short terms. "To-say-it was any .-benefit to tho Loan and Mercantile," ho said, "or that I acted as'l-did"-because I .was-a-shareholder, as this lovely paper suggests, is absolute nonsense." The whole object of the loan, ho continued, was to enable peoplo to get advances from the Government. Ho. saw. a chan.ee of securTO ts'';Was quarter: per cemt. less'than. the Post Office charged—aiid he told the Minister about it. "That is my sin," Mr. Fraser concluded. '1 can only sajy •few I am proud of what. I did." Mr G 1 W.'RUSSELL (Avon): 1 Since I' have; beei -brought;into this, I would-just-like to"mske one remark. _ Ilio honourable eentileman who has ]ust sat down statM 'that ho assisted these neg-totjons for the purpose of enabling monaEto^bn. lent to tho settlers of New Zealand through the State Guaranteed Advances IfrV Frascr: I didn't say that. I'sHtt: ."Advances to settlers,'* loans to local Iwiliti;, and other purposos.' ' ' Mr. Russell said that tho real reasonfor the loaji could not ba as Mr. Frasex

had said, because .the Government liad at the. very time they borrowed this .£50,000 from the Loan and Mercantile, borrowed .£IOO,OOO from the Advances Office., , . Mf..Fraser said the loans were not obtained at the same time.