Advances To Settlers.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4433, 8 July 1909, Page 3

Advances To Settlers.

RE-LENDING OF GOVERNMENT ADVANCES.

A serious allegation is fathered by the Eltham Argus that well-to-do people have mortgaged their properties to the Advances to Settlers Department, and have obtained money at per cent, and lent it out again at nearly double the rate of interest they are paying. This has been brought under the notice of the Acting - Premier (the Hon. Jas. Carroll), who is in charge of the Department concerned, and of Mr P. Heyes (Superintendent of the Advances to Settlers Office). The Argus suggested that the Government should set a few inquiries afoot for the purpose of ascertaining where the abuse it refers to exists, and said that the Government could get some interesting information in Taranaki,

In reply to inquiries of the Minister ’ and the head of the Department, it was ascertained that in the last fifteen years only one case of the kind mentioned had been discovered. The Department limits its advances now, and had done so for the last twelve months, to £SOO, so that a transaction of the kind j suggested by the Argus would return the original borrower comparatively 1 little for his trouble. The one authenticated case referred to did occur in Taranaki, but Mr Heyes states that there is no reason to suppose that such a thing is practised, if it exists at all. The Department at all times, he says, dots it* best jto conserve the interest of people who wish to borrow money from it for legitimate purposes. Valuers are specifically instructed to inquire, where applications are made for loans, whether there is any probability of the money being relent at an advance rate.