THE HARBOR LOAN.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 December 1921, Page 4

THE HARBOR LOAN.

The intimation that the New Plymouth Harbor Board has succeeded in floating its loan of £128,000 at Home, and that the money will be available immediately, will be hailed with satisfaction throughout the -province. The terms on which it has been raised have not been announced, but it may be taken for granted that thdy will be just a shade above those of the recent Auckland municipal loan, which worked out at about 6J per cent. This is the best market rate available, being only a few points below , the price of the Government’s last loan and the current rate for gilt-edged Imperial loans. So that the New Plymouth Harbor Board may well cc-ngratulate itself on obtaining the money on the best terms available today. The Board wisely did not seek to put the whole of its loan on the market, but only sufficient to enable it to carry on operations for the next two years or so. By the end of that period the money market may be easier. The latest reports show that there is considerable money available for investment at Home just now for approved colonial securities, because of tbe industrial aud commercial stagnation that unfortunately exists there. The British investor is wisely showing a preference for sound colonial loans. In this way he is assisting in the development of the resources o: the British Empire as against that of a foreign country, which he recently found was of little or no help, to the Empire in its hour of peril. To-day the progress and development of the Empire’s own resources are inseparably bound up with the welfare of the Old Country itself, and it is good to see that this fact is -recognised by British capitalists. In regard to harbor works, the board can now push energetically ahead. Much valuable time unfortunately has been lost, through various causes, and it therefore .behoves the board to leave no stone unturned in building the new wharf (which is badly needed), and proceeding with the reclamation work, and the lengthening of the breakwater.