STRAY NOTES.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 653, 26 July 1921, Page 3

STRAY NOTES.

(By “Don Quixote.”)

In these times of financial stress it is so important that the “man in the street” should have it brought home to him how unnecessary it is that every, measure that makes fqr the betterment of the nation, is also to the Advantage of the individual and that he, by narrow mindedness and an incorrect viewpoint may be influencing in the wrong direction hose immediately around him, and so in ever-widening circles, till eventually the very mechanism of Government itself is rendered impotent to enact measures that would materially improve the finances of the Dominion.

Such a measure would be the issu J iug of £10,000,000 worth of State guaranteed premium bonds. It is the soundest financial scheme that can be evolved, as the principle is repaid by the interest as it becomes due. Air continental nations have it, and only recently Australia has fallen into line, two of the Commonwealth States having issued “State premium bonds,” and in every case it is absolutely successful, and the money is subscribed by the people within a very shoft time of the issue of the “bonds.”

Now, if New Zealand issued £10,000,000 worth of “premium bonds” of £5 each, within six months the whole issue would be absorbed without. unduly depleting the Post Office Savings Bank accounts or those of the ordinary commercial bank, as most'.people would content themselves with one or two “bonds.'” On this sum interest at 5 per eent. would be paid each year, which would amount to, the sum of £500,000 a year. It would be allocated, for the sake of example, as follows:—£200,000 would redeem or pay off 40,000 “bonds” at raj, or less if a premium was allowed on them; the remaining £300,000 would be divided, up into premiums or prizes of from. £SO to £20,000, the drawings would take place quarterly, and as year by year the savings of the thrifty accumulated, so fresh issues of “premium bonds” could be made, enabling the Government to pay off the \ existing and. ever increasing debt of ! New Zealand and to pursue, a progres- j sivc; policy of public works,

Now “man in the street,” what have you got against it? At least you will admit the scheme from a .standpoint of pure finance is absolutely sound, I think you will permit roe to take that for granted, if not show .me a better. I know many a poor farmer would sleep sounder at nvgbt if he knew that the interest he is struggling to meet in these herd times, was really reducing the principle' instead of as things are today. He borrows, sav, £SOOO and in five years’ time he has paid, if he is

lucky enough to get the money at 5 per cent., £.1250, and i still'- owes the original £SOOO.

Now. on moral grounds, you may say it’s •> gambling. My dear “man In the street” what isn’t? You insure your life. Practically you are making' a. bet with the Insurance Company that you will die before a certain age and they, with, the intimate knowledge of statistics which (barring epidemics, earthquakes and acts of war) govern human life in the aggregate, say you won’t.. Or you purchase a dairy farm. Do you do this out of pure philanthropy? No, but because you hope to scratch a Jiving out of it and in time, thanks to a goodly unearned increment, which you individually have nothing to do with, make a handsome profit, 10’0 1 or 200 per cent, on capital invested, j at least, and m many cases u great ■ deal more, "much of a muchness’ > with the “premium bond,” I. think, j My dear “mar! in the street.” 1 i have heard yen say that, it is per- ; feet'ly moral to draw 8 per cent. on 1 your investments.. If* -J per cent.,

why not SO per cent.?. Don’t you thqnk it. depends on where it comes from and who pays it? If you are extorting even 8 per cent from the widowed and the fatherless, you are -not as moral as you 'thought yourself; while if you get 80 per cent, increment from a Governemnt “bond” you are still just as moral, your good fortune has done no one any harm. Get down on your knees in gratitude and thankfulness.

Nc life is just .one big' gamble from the cradle to the grave, and I don’t think you quite grasp when gambling becomes a -'sin, and I take it it is only wrong when you use money that is necessary for the comfort or health of those dependant on you; or if it is needed to pay your own personal debts, on a chance such as the winning of a horse or the fall of a card, with the hope of winning a much larger sum than the stake involved, not that these things ;\rs sinful in themselves. If the money is yours to do what you like >vith, well you may be foolish to go to the races and back your fancy, but it is certainly not immoral to do it. A gambler to me is one who, regardless of the just claims of others squanders his money on games of chance, and that seems to me to be the only reasonable position. To view it from any other standpoint is ridiculous, as if to “gamble” is to risk money in the hope of gaining a larger stake than the sum! involved, then the farmer could not purchase sheep or land, because he also hopes to make a much larger sum thtan he risks; and you would not be able to insure your life because you gamble if you do.

Or “man in the street,” you may say that tot permit “State premium bonds” will foster the gambling spirit that is inherent in the human race. “Oh, strainer of gnats!” If the gambling spirit is inherent in the human race, give it a rational outlet, let this instinct be turned into legitimate and healthy channels, help the State with it, keep the thousands of pounds that are annually going out of New Zealand to support Tattersail’s, use them for the good of this beautiful country of our adoption.

You are living in a “fool’s paradise,” come out, Mr Massey has, owing to his statecraft and financial genius, borrowed another £5.000.000.

But has it occurred to you to reflect that the time is rapidly coming w'hen this must stop. There are limits to our - borrowing power and whether they are already stretched to the utmost, neither you or I know. Only the great financiers of the world can judge. But one day in the near future, unless we resort to some rational and popular method of raising money within our own Dominion, when we appeal to the London market for funds to “carry on,” the answer will be “No.”

So, oh “man in the street, think well what you- are doing- when you stigmatise “State premium bonds ” ns unclean. Remember how often you are acting on the same principle in i your own endeavour to acquire a com- ' pctence, “you risk with the hope of gain/’ and the. more gain the more gratification does it afford you. But cal! to mind that with the “State bond” there is no risk,' you are bound to get your money back, with perhaps a small increment, or perhaps enough for you to keep you and your will.- in comfort for the rest of your days. And to nil you give hope. Oh, blessed hope! How often when things are going wrong and you are indeed “up against it,” will the thought that perhaps at the next “drawing” your “bond” may draw sufficient to-be a real help to you, how often will t he thought nerve you to greater efforts and ward off that grim despair that exacts its toll frem ns humans in shattered nerves, weakened bodies, and unhinged minds, that too frequently end in the suicide’s grave. Give us “toilers in life's j irartfen something- to hope for and von give us ;m..thing to live for,”