THE COMPULSORY LOAN

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 230, 27 September 1940, Page 6

THE COMPULSORY LOAN

The compulsory contributors to the eight-million loan axe relatively few in number, and many of those who will not be called upon to contribute are apt to think that the matter is of small concern to them. That point of view is an entirely mistaken one; the whole community is intimately concerned because of the effect which the demand for heavily increased withdrawals from company finance and from private incomes will have upon employment and progress. The sudden withdrawal of funds based not upon ability to pay but upon , tho heavy exactions of last year will curtail expansion in many cases and will result in enforced reduction in effort in other directions which must have repercussions fax beyond the field of those immediately affected. These effects are multiplied by the short notice given to contributors and by the fact that the last of the instalments must be paid concurrently with the still higher income tax imposts of this year. The regulations controlling the details of the enforced contributions have not yet been made public; it is to be hoped that they will give a greater measure of relief than is now in prospect in cases where grave financial difficulty may be created. The banks have not yet decided how far they can finance contributories, but obviously they will not be able to go as far as in the last war.. Appeals to the Minister will fall upon stony ground, and there should bu some easily accessible tribunal to which cases of hardship may be remitted. In England and in Australia great advantage has been taken of the opportunity to use the savings of those on lower grade incomes by the use of savings certificates. No such plan has been adopted here, although it was suggested by Mr. Savage when Mr. Nash was in England and promised by Mr. Nash in his last Budget.