FIVE MILLION LOAN

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 480, 9 October 1928, Page 12

FIVE MILLION LOAN

AUTHORISED IN FINANCE BILL SOME INTERESTING ITEMS (Special to THE SUN) The authority to borrow £5,000.000, comprising £3,000.000 for public works and £2,000,000 for railways improvements is provided for in the Finance Bill, introduced in the House of Representatives last evening. Among subordinate items arc an advance of £50.000 from the Consolidated Fund to the Waihou-Ohinemuri Rivers Improvement Account, provision for the maintenance of a police force in Samoa, and for the payment of £12,000 of accrued profits from the Samoan reparation estates to the Samoan Treasury. Wider provisions for members of the General Assembly to travel to and from Wellington are embodied in the Bill. It is thus provided that members may travel by service car as well as by train. Further, it is provided that as long as they remain members they may travel at the public expense on the Union Company’s Picton or Lyttelton ferry steamers. Another interesting feature of the Finance Bill is the modification of the restrictions governing the payment of subsidies to local bodies in respect to expenditure on unemployment relief. Overdraft facilities for certain elec-tric-power boards are extended and authority is given for the Public Trustee to lend the Tongariro Park Board £40,000 for the erection of a hostel. There is also the following interesting paragraph:—lt shall be deemed lawful for any local authority to expend money out of its general fund for welcoming, entertaining, and otherwise tendering hospitality to SquadronLeader Ivingsford Smith and his companions on the occasion of their flight from Australia to New Zealand.