STRAY NOTES.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 666, 9 September 1921, Page 5

STRAY NOTES.

(By “Don Quixote.”)

A very notable sermon was preached by the Rev urant on a lecent Sunday evening in Auckland. It was apropos of the intolerant spirit of the age, and his concluding words should be writ large in every home and heart ‘n New Zealand. “1 appeal for a wider, kinder spirit, the spirit of love for one - nstead of the spirit of intolerance let us develop the spirit of love, a love that thinks no ill of its neighbour, a love that enobles and enables us to look upon life and its many problems, with the eyes of Christ."’ It is a marvellous thing, that in so

many so-called Christian homes of today ‘the spirit, of Christian charity is almost entirely lacking. It is the most Godlike of all the virtues, and • ■if we fail in that, we fail badly indeed. We are too narrow in our out-

look on life, too ready to condemn others, too ready to think that our views are right and the other person wrong. The tendency of the age is to enforce a mild sort of tyranny, and we blame without knowledge of the circumstances and, indeed, in most

cases, it is only our own ignorance which permits us to hold views that are logically unsound and absolutely contrary to fact. I recently came across a rather fine saying of “Epaphroditus.” It may be doubted whether the angels in heaven attach as‘much importance to the sins and failings of mankind as the Puritans on earth do. There is no doubt many people have a very intimate knowledge of the “mote in their brothers eye.” It seemed strange the other day reading on one page of the “Herald" an eulogistic article on the beautiful Auckland climate and £he small rainfall and balmy springlike weather, and on another of the torrential downpour and heavy gales that -were raging. The latter were certainly true enough, but the former arose, I fancy, from the writer’s vivid imagination. However, it was a good advertisement for us in the “Old Country.” “Nemo.” writing to the “Times on the subject of “Premium Bonds,” asks some very periinent questions. I don’t know the answers myself.

! Perhaps if they were put as riddles j before the House, it would give the j members a very bad quarter of an ! hour. Before they could find a ; rational answer to, for instance : “Is it gambling to invest in a premium ! bond, and not gambling for a soldier 1 to ballot for a Crown section ?” } “Nemo" would like some more inI formation about premium bonds, but briefly put I think the whole matter is contained in the following The Government of New Zealand wants money, and issues so many 100,000 premium bonds at £5 or £lO each, interest on this sum, as it becomes >due every quarter, is used to repay so many bonds at par, or with small premium added, and a certain nurni ber of bonds carry a larger premium, nvliich, of course, naturally eneour,ages the general public to favour this form of investment. The quarterly : drawings are conducted in a very i similar manner to the present sysi tem of balloting for Crown sections. | The advantage to the Government of . country -that introduces the premium I bond is that the money is raised at I the mere cost of printing the bonds. i They are distributed through the j Post Office, and the principal debt is repaid by the interest. As things are at present on the. ordinary loan, 'interest can be paid for ever, and the ‘original debt remains the same. Even with a sinking fund it takes a very long time to extinguish a loan, especially as sinking funds themselves nave to be re-invested, and conse* ' auently are often not available when required. Now consider if this last* £5,000,000 had been raised by means of premium bonds, New Zealand would have had the advantage of the whole £5,000,000, but as things are, what happens ? Weil, for one thing, we are not going to get the £5,000,000 or anything like. it. It was “underwritten,” if I remember rightly, at 04 per cent., that means that though? we shall have to repay the £5.000,000, we shall only receive £4,650,000, and by the time it reaches the Treasury coffers,, it will probably be less than that. Hence give me. and ail those that have New Zealand’s financial welfare at heart, the premium bond.