THE DOMINION'S LOCAL LOAN.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 August 1915, Page 4

THE DOMINION'S LOCAL LOAN.

The people o{ New Zealand will not have been surprised that the Financial StateBlent included a proposal to raise a loan locally. The splendid success which was achieved on the issue of the last British war loan is still in our memory, and the Government of New Zealand may well anticipate a generous response to t'he appeal made on Thursday night by Sir Joseph Ward to take advantage of this further opportunity to express j their .patriotism. It in proposed to limit 1 the amount to two millions sterling and to utilise tin; money for public works, thus avoiding applying to the Home financiers for any monetary assistance except such &s may he recognised for war purposes. The local loan will follow close!}' the methods adopted in connection with the British loan. Debentures of £5 and multiples of that sum will be issued bearing four and a-ha-If per cent, interest, the period varying according to the desire of the subscriber, but not exceeding twenty-five years. There are very few people ill the Dominion who are not in a position to become subscribers to this loan. The Finance Minister, very appropriately, we think, reminded the country of (lie stirring words used by Mr. McKenna in the House of Commons, when he said: "He who subscribes to the country's need at the present is in truth doing an act of mercy, and his act benefits both him and tile country to which he gives. He who subscriber now, and saves in order to subscribe, will be able to bear the strain when the war is over. He will be thankful for tile efforts 'he has made in the struggle to keep himself, but still deaireT to liim must be the knowledge that every aid he gives to himself he is multiplying for his country, and that his country will bless ham for his providence and for Ms generosity." When we come to consider that the Home land's response to the call for money

reached the almost inconceivable sum of £600,000,000, it would appear but a small thing for New Zealand to provide £2,000,000. As a matter of fact, it is open to question whether Sir Joseph Ward should not have asked the people of New Zealand to relieve the Motherland of the onus of raising money for our war expenses. Of their ability to do so we may take the deposits standing in tin; Post Office Savings Bank — over £19,000,000 —as conclusive evidence, for if the people's savings reach so high a figure, what must the floating capital be that could well find useful service in the country's cause at this critical period? The returns of the deposits at the various banks give an answer to the query. So far as the two million loan is'concerned, it should be more than covered in a very short space of time, and the Government might well utilise as much money as they can secure for development of the primary industries.