GIFT TO GOVERNMENT

Chronicle (Levin), 6 November 1946, Page 5

GIFT TO GOVERNMENT

-Press Associatibn

War Profils Handed Over BUSINESSMAFGFVES £58,000

By Telegraph—

AUCKLAND, -Xov. 5. The aniiouncement that an Auckland businessman wliom lie cuuJd not iiarne, had made a g'ift to the Uoveriiment of ail his nfet pi'olits dill'ing the Wai', alnbuiiting to £58, 0C0, was made by the, Minister of Kinanee-, Hon. \V. N'ash, when addressing the Auckland Creditmen's Associatibn. A eheque for £i3,000, added Mr. -Nasli, had been brought "to him about a month ago. "It was on June.l, 1940, that this man came into my office at Wellington and offered to give the Treasury all the ne't profits i'rom his business for the duration of the war and 12 months thefeafter," said th'e Minister. "He wrote it down in pencil. "He said: ' I have been eloin g well. I have got a good business and 1 *11 gX'v you all the mbney 1 can make. 1 will send yoti a cheiiue l'or £500 every month and at- the end of the finahcial year, altei ineome tax has been paid, you ean have the balanee of any profit Mr. Nash added that there Avass a proviso that, in the event of the net profit being under £6000, the liayment having already been made in the pveceding 12 months would stand but furthcr monthly payments would be suspended lintil tlie result of the next 12 months' trading were knowli. It was understood that -fhe money would be used exclusively for war purposes and it was so used, Mr. Nash said. Tlie donor, in making the offbr, had written: "In this fight for. very existence, we eannot fairly alloAv one sectton of tlie eommunity to make all the sacrifice, The men wlio offer to fight are offering tlieir all. We don't feel disposecl to add to the capital value of our business by taking all the profitvS as in the past. " "I have never had such a messag'e as that," added Ihe Minister, "If that spirit had been shovvn by evoryone tllo war would have been paid for. Instead we have a debt of £220,000,000." Later Mr. Nash said ihe cost of Ihe war to Now Zealand had been £640,000,000 but 1wo-1 birds of it had been defrayed during ihe eurreney of Ihe war.