LOAN SUGGESTED

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 32, 7 February 1931, Page 15

LOAN SUGGESTED

REHABILITATION PROBLEM

ME. A. E. JULL'S SCHEME

■ Mr. A. E. Jull, M.P., Waipawa, has gent the following telegram to the Prime Minister:— ?'May I offer the following suggestion for handling the enormous earthquake losses. The personal losses alone will absorb more than can possibly be looked for from Dominion subscriptions. The prosperity of tho whole province depends upon the prompt recognition of the fact that such convulsions of Nature are of nation-wide interest and the repercussions will be felt all over the Dominion. Financial institutions and trading companies will have to take stock of their possible contingent liabilities at a time when it is' most necessary for some expansion of credit. Businesses are disrupted, plants and stocks demolished, accounts are nncollectable, and^ these conditions must continue until some scheme of restoration is formulated ana approved. Tho Government alone can restore confidence so that an immediate movement towards restoration can be made; •My suggestion is that the huge amount necessary outside all possible ■donations 'should be met by a London

loan, secured by a special earthquake addition to all fire insurance policies, the insurance companies to collect and tho Stato alone handle such claims, The premiums received to not only take care of proposed loan but to "create fund somewhat on lines of land transfer assurance fund to meet future possibie convulsions. To enable the British people to show that practical sympathy that I am sure they feol, I suggest that the loan might be at two and ono half per cent, interest for, say, the first .15 years. I feel it the duty of all to give you tho benefit of any thoughtful suggestions."