BUY A CERTIFICATE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2854, 19 August 1916, Page 10

BUY A CERTIFICATE

WAR LOAN GAINING IMPETUS THE CHANCE FOR THE SMALL MAN What follows relates to War Loan Certificates which any man, woman, or child can buy at the nearest post office for sixteen shillings each, up to any number. War Bonds, which, are alsoa part of the War Loan scheme, are a different matter, and concern chiefly tlio capitalist. Tho small man—tjic man with any sum availalmj from 16s. upwards—who wants to "do his bit" to help should do it by purchasing War Certificates. In five years' time lie will get his money back with compound interest at tlie rate of 4} per cent, per annum— inat is to say, for every 16s. ho invests now ho will got a certificate on which he can collect £1 in five years' time. If lie has £lu now, he can hand it in and got £o0 in five years; £80 lent to his country now will' bring him in £100, and so on, as much as ho likes. No Umit to tho Numbor, That last is a new point. He can now buy as many certificates as he likes. Previously it was understood that h'e could only buy £o0 worth. T.ie change has been made because the original proposal was found to he unsatisfactory to many who wish to invest, and do not desire to tie their money up for so long a period as fourteen or twenty-five years, as is tho case where War Bonds are concerned. So the G.P.O. authorities—who control tho issue of tho certificates—have decided to issue ad many certificates (not War Bonds, ho it understood) as anyone desires. Further than that, tlie sale of certificates will not cease on August 2.l—it will go oh indefinitely. This decision on tho part of tho postal authorities was not arrived at without a deal of thought, and inquiry. One argument that was brought before thorn concerned trust moneys. Under the Trustees Act. people who wero appointed trustees have to bo very careful in the investments they <nake to savo being called to account by those peoplo on whoso account they hold moneys. Further, it is often decreed that trustees have to pay out moneys at different times, and in some cases it is to bo invested only on short-dated loans or at call, according to circumstances. One case in Wellington concerned a man who had £1400 trust moneys to invest in the War Loan, hut on looking into his powers found that he could not tie the money up for as long i period as fourteen years. Ho was accommodated with the live-year 'erni certificates to that amount yesterday, and so has made a very excellent and entirely riskier investment in a man-, ner that co-ordinates with his duty as a trustee. Safe Custody. Mr. H. A. R. Huggins, tho Chief Accountant of the Post and Telegraph Department, who is very immediately concerned in the issue of the War Loan Certificates, having emphasised to a Dominion' representative that there is now no limit to the num'oer of certificates anyone may purchase, directed attention to another point of interest to all investors in certificates. It has been pointed out that some means of talcing, custody of tl><* certificates on behalf of investors might' be made by the Government. The G.P.O. people jumped in nt once, and decided that a scheme would he evolved whereby the certificates would, if desired, he held in safe custody in the vaults of the G.P.0., without any charge being made. Mr. Huggins points out that when certificates are accepted for custody receipts will have to be issued to holders, and their specimen signature will have to he taken as a means of identification at the end of the five-year period. Tho printing of Mie receipt forns is now in hand, and a start will he made to distribute them to the various post offices next week. This will entail a good deal of extra work, in sending in the parcels of certificates from tho smaller post offices and recording their receipt, but this part of the scheme is exnected to be inaugurated all over the Dominion about the end of next week. Going off Well. It is good news to learn that the War Loan promises well. It does not do to ho too optimistic, and New Zealand has never been asked to do wbat is being done to-day, hut there arc encouraging sighs that lead the authorities to believe that the flotation of the loan will be successful. 'The weakness in the floating of the scheme was the omission of advertisements giving particulars of tho loan before the date of its having been placed before the public. Hod a week's advertising been arranged beforehand, tho response would have been the more spontaneous. The position to-day is that the public are only beginning to realise the "good thing" that is being offered ■ thorn, and in proof of that every day's return has beaten tho previous day's return for the whole of tlio Dominion. "The. best sign," said Mr. Huggins when questioned on this poiut, "in that the loan is gathering force every day; that is, the returns are improving daily. Strange to say, the. public seems to be going for the £10 certificates more than the £1 ones. On Friday (that is yesterday), we issued at the G.P.O. alone £4220 worth of £10 certificates, whilst on that day only 160 £1 certificates wero sold. But the position is improving all the time— people are waking up to tlie exceptional terms the Government is offering!"' Have you woke up?