NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1744, 23 October 1917, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

Under the heading “Profiteering,” a correspondent writes to the Ashburton Guardian as follows; “Regarding your leader of last evening, a case in point I will give in our own town. A lead pencil was asked for. One produced. The shopkeeper said it was 6d, but now 9d. Pencil made in Austria. Shopkeeper ehaffingly charged; ‘You trade with the enemy?’ ‘No,’ he says, ‘that pencil is part of stock I bought five years ago I’ ”

The money market is tight, and this condition will, it is stated by financial authorities, continue for some time to come. Owing to heavy demands in connection with the recent war loan, and the financing of produce which is detained in the Dominion because of shipping difficulties, the banks are conserving their finances for these 'purposes, and also for legitimate business requirements. Advances are not being made by the banks for the purchase of land, the erection of buildings, for investment or for speculation, Some of the principal lending institutions outside the banks are now charging 6J per cent, for loans* on first mortgages, an advance of 4 per cent, on the recent rate. It is very evident that the present tightness of money will continue, owing to the demands the Government must make in connection with further war loans. This being so, there is every necessity for the exercise of caution and'economy.