POLITICAL NOTES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 175, 13 April 1918, Page 8

POLITICAL NOTES

THE WAR LOAN ADVANCESM BANKS A statement regarding the terms oni which hanks are to advance money lor the accommodation of persons wishing to subscribe to iho W.y Loan, was made by the .Minister of Finance in the House of Representatives yesterday in reply to a question by Mr. .J.'j C. Thomson. Mr. Thomson said that, in Australia the banks lent monev at 4 per cent., repayable over a period of 18 months. Mr. Isitt asked the Minister to telll the House what steps would be taken to ■ prevent banks closing down suddtnly on borrowers and demanding the repayment of money advanced. There was a great deal of uneasiness felt by those who would N like to have the assistance of the banks. | Sir Joseph Ward said that the fi'cfc' that tlie rale of 4 per cent. was. charged in Australia had come under his notice some time ago. Up to a few days ago the actual arrangements made by the Commonwealth Govern-' ment witli tlie banks were not known.' ill this country. 'J here was a position, which ho was asking for further information. Here the banks charged Si per cent., lult the rate was charged on the bank balances only. He was led to believe that in Australia the interest was charged on a fixed, amount. This would not be a verymuch better rattr than the New Zealand rate of 5* per cent, on bank balances. His opinion was that the banks should keep the rate as low as possible to enable their clients to | invest in the War Loan, and he intended to liavo further discussion with the banks ;i» soon as possible, 'iho object was to have the loan spread over as many people as possiuie, and t-he> banks had given every facility to enable this to ue clone, file point raised by the member lor Ckristchureh Zsortu was a- more difficult one. 'He had heard of no case up till now in whicn anyone nad been caiied upon ill such a, way as to Oe inconvenienced, 'iiie Government might have io ;tsk for power to prevent money being sent out of the country ror investment elsewhere. In Britain this had been done. It was only prudence tiiafc in this war tinw no money should fas sent out of country lor investment abroad, except' with the approval of the Minister of Finance, he thought it was important that everything in connection with the finance of the country should be under the control of the Government, chietly, for the reason that it- was essential tiiafc interest rates should be kept down. Regulations would be gazetted under the u'ar Regulations Act"in the course of a day or two relating to Governaiasn control of rates of interest.

Sir Joseph, Ward proceeded with an-' other matter. There were some people, lie said, who had been making misstatements about, the Post Ofhce Savings Bank. There was no stronger stitution in the world than the New Zealand Post Office Savings Bank. Some persons had been trying to create an impression among .small people than if they lent money to the country they would never get it baok. Mr. Hindmansh: German spies. Sir Joseph Ward declared that this was worse than sedition. Mr. Tarr:.Can't you take action? Sir Joseph Ward: You can't*find out who the people are. DEFENCE MINISTER'S "HEAL'.'H." AN UNFAIR QUESTION. Asking a question without notice,' Mr. J. V. Brown, made a reference to the Defence Minister, which:' Mr.. Massey immediately challenged..: Mr. Brown's question was: -"Whether' it is a fact that one of the membersof Cabinet handed to the Prime Minister at the beginning of March a letter! alleging the health of the Minister of Defence to be such that he thought •he was unfit to control the Wounded:; Soldiers' DcpaHmeiit?" This probably had reference to the transfer of the control of wounded soldiers from Mr. ltussell to Sir James Allen, a transfer which was strenuously opposed by JJT. Russell. „ ~ ~ .1 Mr. Massey replied to the question, at once as follows:—"I have had many communications fr.om members of the Government from time to time on many subjects, but no such statement was made iu any communication. to me. I hope that is sufficiently distinct. I want to make this further • suggestion—that I do _uot think tncse> statements should go into print, e'vea in Hansard. Innuendo is the worst form of attack, and should not be iol-

fcrnteu in Parliament." m i Air. Speaker said that he considered an amendment of the Standing Orders was necessary in order that questions might be submitted to him for review ; before being asked in the House. He ; believed that this was the practice in the House of Commons. THE THREE PETERS. In the House of Representatives yesterday the Minister of Defence referred to a statement that had been made by Dr. Thacker concerning a reservist named Peters, who was said to havo entered tHe CI Camp in December, and to have had only six days' training 'since that time. The Minister said he would have boen glad to have mid fuller particulars of the charge. He found that three men named Peters had entered the CI Camp. Ao draft had reached the camp in Decenibei. One Peters had entered camp 111 October, and had been transferred to the

Thirty-fifth Reinforcements. A second Peters had entered camp in «ovcmber, and hud subsequently boon classed C 2. lie had been given home service work. A third Peters went into camp with the February draft, and had since been classed fit A. He would be transferred to a reinforcement. "A FOREIGN COMPANY." The member for Waitemati (Mr. Harris) stated in the House of Representatives, yesterday that the A.M.].. Society had been treated unfairly in comparison with the Government Lite Insurance Office in the matter of war taxation. The society had been classed as a foreign company, because it did business outside New Zealand. Sir Joseph Ward 1 said lie hr/ been in correspondence with the societv on tho subject, and he would go into the matter when full information was available He veali.-sed that some change was 'required in tho taxation of life insurance companies which divided practically all their profits among their policy-holders and lent npiey on a bifi scale.